Does Your Amber Heart Bleed Purple Gold
by Adel Mortescryche
Summary: The last thing anyone expected was for the older twin to manifest Cloud Flames. (Or the one in which Tsuna is Xanxus' Cloud Guardian, flat-out terrifies anyone who's heard about him, has a younger brother who loves him, is possibly in a queerplatonic long-distance relationship with Hibari but will never admit it, and is the big brother you never knew you wanted in your life.)
1. Does Your Amber Heart Bleed Purple Gold

**Disclaimer:** Let's see… nope, the rights to KHR haven't miraculously transferred to me since the last time I wrote fanfic in this sandbox. Don't own.

 **Rating:** T/PG-13, though some issues discussed in-fic verge on PG-15.

 **Timeline:** Complete AU in that not only do we have twin Sawadas, this has scenes spread out over their life from childhood to adulthood.

 **Thanks to: cywscross** for her input on Yoshi's name; and **Sisp** , who inspired me to write a Cloud!Tsuna fic in the first place.

Also **dedicated to Sisp** , since gifting doesn't work on this site, unlike over on AO3, where this fic is crossposted.

 **AN1:** Note that, even if Tsuna's twin initially comes across as an OC, I don't precisely consider him one. I've written both the twins as AU versions of Tsuna. One softer and one harsher, one Sky and the other Cloud. I'm not explaining it away as a single soul split in two bodies or anything else, since that isn't what the story's about. Admittedly, Cloud!Tsuna was supposed to be the only Tsuna when I started writing this, which is why he's the one to retain the original nickname. I started out thinking about writing an original twin in and decided that, nope, that wasn't what I wanted. Two Tsunas were far more interesting, even if they don't consciously think of themselves in that way. And here we are.

Also, this is largely unedited, because I just haven't had the time. Apologies for typos or any other errors.

 _ **Head on to the bottom for Trigger Warnings and Character Song List**_

* * *

 **Does Your Amber Heart Bleed Purple Gold**

* * *

"Forgive me, senpai. If you want to bug the kid, you'll have to go at it yourself."

The third year blinked slowly down at the newly ascended second year brat quivering in front of him. The brat was still relatively new to the way things worked in Nami-chuu, but he'd had the sense to keep his head low and get things done, which had made him more than a little useful to him. Yes, aside from his rather unfortunate name - "Momo" he'd said, in a long suffering voice. When asked if that was short for something, the kid had given them a jaundiced look that said, no, no it wasn't. His parents had wanted a cute little girl, and when they hadn't gotten one they'd decided to go ahead and name him 'Momo' _anyway._ They'd all kept mum after that. - Tada Momo was everything he could have wanted in a subordinate in middle school. He hadn't questioned anything not worth questioning, and when he _did_ bring something up, it was always in a politely deferring manner. He hadn't been a problem for the whole of the first year that he'd been in Nami-chuu.

This was the first time he'd ever stood his ground and said 'no' to anything, though. And about _this_ , of all things?

"Maybe you don't understand, Tada, this is a _democracy._ Kuro-aniki said that this kid was going to be lots of fun, he's dumb and he doesn't have any friends either even though it's been a month since the first years came in. He'd make the perfect gopher, so you're going to catch a few of his classmates to take care of things for us." Said Miyazaki with a wide grin. Kuro stayed silent, watching. He didn't want to get involved until he really had to – Miyazaki was enough, to handle something like this.

Tada glared up at the other third year, still quivering, but still just as stubborn.

"You don't _understand_ , Miyazaki-senpai, no one messes with that kid. I," here, Tada looked a little uneasy, not sure if he wanted to continue speaking on not. Kuro frowned down at him, and the kid bent like a sheet of wet paper.

"I went to the same elementary school as the kid. Hell, I was unlucky enough to go to the same play school as them."

The 'them' was unexpected enough that it made Kuro speak up without waiting for Miyazaki to say anything. His question had Tada somehow wilting to the floor while still standing straight before them.

"I'm sorry, Kuro-aniki, I just… _I'm_ just…" he broke off, beginning to look queasy. Miyazaki grunted, and grabbed the bottle of water sitting on the desk closest to them. Tada fumbled when the bottle was thrown at him, but he _did_ look better once he'd actually managed to take a drink from it.

"Them?" Kuro repeated. Tada looked pained, but he _did_ speak up without going green, this time.

"Yeah. Everyone from my old play school and Namimori Elementary knows about them, so it shouldn't be too dangerous to say anything… I think. Anyway-" he continued hurriedly, when he caught sight of the scowl on Miyazaki's face "it's. That is. They're _twins_ , aniki."

"…twins?" Miyazaki repeated incredulously. Kuro didn't say anything, but something in him agreed with the sentiment. Twins? Sawada was enough of a disaster without there being _two_ of them with the same genes.

Tada nodded, looking miserable.

"The younger one's fine, even if he's No Good. He doesn't even say anything about the favours that anyone asked of him – or, at least, he never did, when we were younger. The older one, though…" at this point, Tada ominously trailed away. Kuro stared down at him, and Miyazaki gave a sneering laugh.

"Is the older one that scary, Tada? You look like you're about to wet your pants."

To both their surprise, Tada curled in on himself.

"You don't understand, senpai. He _is_ that scary. The last time anyone bullied Dame-Yoshi, or even _called_ him that, the older one put them in the hospital."

That made Miyazaki pause, actually surprised. When his friend glanced back at him, Kuro thought over it for a moment before carefully nodding. Miyazaki scowled, but he turned back dutifully.

"If the older one, if there even _is_ an older one, is that fucking terrifying, why hasn't anyone heard about him?" he asked snidely. Tada bit his lip, and shook his head slowly.

"I don't know, Miyazaki-senpai. If he isn't enrolled in the school, I have no idea where he could be. But-" and here, Tada's voice abruptly went hard, "but, there's no way you're getting anyone who knew about the twins to do anything to Dame-Yoshi, senpai. No one's going to do it. I know there are enough people enrolled in Nami-chuu who were around while the twins were still in Elementary, and they've seen just how bad the older twin could get. You'd have better luck turning _them_ into gophers that convincing them to hurt even a hair on the younger one's head."

Kuro stared down at him some more, and finally sat down on top of a desk with a long sigh.

"…this older twin you keep blubbering about. He got a name?" he asked. Miyazaki stepped back, looking irate, while Tada sagged in obvious relief.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, Kuro-aniki. Dame-Yoshi used to call him Tsuna."

Kuro grunted. Tsunayoshi, was it? Well, the Sawada brat was new enough that it wasn't really worth the effort to wear him down – not if he really did have someone keeping an eye on him. It made more sense to track down someone else to use as a gopher. Nodding to himself, he said the same to Tada and Miyazaki, ordering them to take another look at the first years streaming into their school. Hibari wouldn't bother getting involved as long as they spent the first week or so softening up the newcomers, he knew that for a fact. Anyone left hanging in the wind once the first week was done, new comer or not, had to fend for themselves, since _that_ was when the Disciplinary Committee got involved.

It was good. Dignified. Hibari had run things that way since he'd graduated to second year himself, and there was no reason to think he wouldn't do the same this time around.

Even when they'd turned their attention to other matters, and when other members of their little circle came streaming in as they got away from their classes, Kuro couldn't quite forget the look on Tada's face. He'd known the kid for a whole year, and he'd _never_ seen him look that scared before.

Or that stubborn, for that matter. Miyazaki had tried to pry more information about the mysterious twin he'd mentioned, but Tada had shut tighter than a raw clam.

 _Sawada Tsunayoshi, was it,_ Kuro thought to himself for a moment. It was soon lost, and he turned his mind to other, more immediate matters.

X

" _Look, Papa! Mama!" said Yoshi, smiling sweetly, fingers glowing with the wisps of orange flames, like the sky when the sun had set, setting the world ablaze. Nana gasped, falling to her knees and reaching out in shock. Iemitsu set a hand on his wife's shoulder, stopping her before her fingers could actually touch the flames still dancing in their four year old's hands._

 _Their other four year old was standing behind his brother, hands on his shoulders, wide eyed and delighted. The expression bordered on the sublime, and something about it terrified Iemitsu. It felt like a warning bell, tolling in his chest. His intuition was screaming, warning him that that level of attachment between twins could never be safe. Not when Flame Harmony could come into play, and certainly not when his boys were still so young. He couldn't allow them to get tied down when they hadn't seen the world, hadn't even gotten the chance to interact with other people yet._

 _He had to contact Timoteo. He didn't have a choice – having such pure Sky flames manifesting at such a young age, and Harmonising with an unknown Flame alignment could stagnate both the mental and physical growth of the parties involved._

 _As though in response to his thoughts, Tsuna's gaze abruptly whipped upwards, eyes gone hard in his head. Iemitsu felt his breath catch in his throat. He had seen less cold expressions on the faces of mercenaries and assassins when he was hunting them down in the name of the Famiglia._

 _The expression disappeared in a split second, traded in for an adoring smile when Yoshi turned to offer the flame wreathed fingers to his brother. Nana cooed, ruffling their sons' hair, and murmuring about how cute they both were. Iemitsu had to take a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and shove what his intuition was broadcasting to the back of his mind, and crouched down to gather his family into a hug. Nana and Yoshi both came with giggles that sounded nearly identical. Tsuna, Iemitsu was uncomfortable to note, had looked up to pin Iemitsu with a sharp look, but he melted into Iemitsu's arms with as much ease as his brother and mother._

 _Feeling sick to his gut, and terrified for his children, he pressed kisses to the crowns of both the tiny lives curled in the arms of his beloved wife._

 _Yoshi laughed, bright and happy. After a pause, Tsuna did as well._

 _Iemitsu hugged them tight, and prayed that he never had to hear that laughter die out._

X

Tsunayoshi and Yoshiyasu. Tsuna and Yoshi both had dim memories of their father laughing and claiming one was named for a great leader and other for his closest advisor, and that they both made the perfect pair. They also had dim memories of their mother laughingly rebuking him, saying that all they needed to be was themselves, anything else they would be would get sorted out in time.

Yoshi always kept that specific memory close to his heart, especially on days such as this, when he was sitting on the floor, backed up against the lockers, hyperventilating and covered in blood that wasn't his own. It wasn't nearly as rare a situation as he would have liked.

Tsuna, for his part, slowly uncurled his fingers, letting go of the shirt collar clenched in them, and carefully got back to his feet. He idly dusted himself off, frowning down at the senior he'd attacked with no warning, nodding to himself, before finally turning to grace Yoshi with a soft smile.

"Are you okay, Yoshi?" he asked, rather predictably. Yoshi took a deep breath, and reached up to catch the hand stretched out towards him.

"Oh dear, look at you. We need to get you cleaned up. Do you have a change of clothes? At least your gym clothes, I think. Those should do. Come along, we can pick them up before going to the infirmary."

Tsuna kept talking even when Yoshi threw his arms around him, hugging him tight. There was no change in his voice, though he _did_ wrap his arms around Yoshi in turn, comfortingly stroking a hand up and down the line of his spine.

"It's okay, you'll be fine now. No one's going to hurt you, Yoshi." He hummed softly, drawing away, but only after he'd patted Yoshi comfortingly on the head.

It felt like being covered up in the fluffiest of duvets. Like it always did.

"Welcome home, Tsuna." He found himself saying, nearly a whole hour later, once he'd managed to get himself cleaned up and changed. Tsuna, standing by the window of the infirmary and staring out at the grounds, glanced over his shoulder and treated Yoshi to yet another one of his soft, comforting smiles.

"I'm back, Yoshi. It's good to be welcomed home."

Yoshi bit his lip, and slowly sank into the bed closest to his older brother.

"Are you going to be here for long? You said that you were busy. I didn't think your Boss would let you come home any time soon."

He watched Tsuna's smile turn distant and fond in the same breath, and had to convince himself that that odd tangle of emotion on his brother's face didn't make him feel jealous.

"Well, he certainly isn't happy, not this close to the trials, but I insisted. He might be my Boss, but you're my younger brother. And dad's been skulking around the Compound too often in the last few weeks, I didn't trust him to not nominate you. It's bad enough that he convinced Don Nono to send _Reborn,_ of all people, to tutor you. I've met Reborn-san, and I have absolutely no idea what could convince him to agree. Unless Don Nono told him you were a candidate for the position of Decimo."

Yoshi could _feel_ himself go white. Thankfully, Tsuna dropped into the bed beside him to catch him by the cheeks and _pull_ before his thoughts could go too far astray.

"Don't worry. Boss knows you aren't the least bit interested in challenging him."

Yoshi whined, and tried to bat his brother's hands away. Once Tsuna finally pulled away, a sweet grin firmly in place in spite of Yoshi's frown, he leaned back with a groan.

"Thank God for that. I don't want anything to do with becoming the Boss of the Main Family, Tsu-nii."

Tsuna rubbed his back comfortingly.

"I know you don't, Yoshi. Like I said, Boss _knows._ "

Yoshi nodded slowly, and turned to face his brother with a soft smile. They were interrupted before he could actually get around to saying anything, of course.

"JUUDAIME!"

"Yoshi!"

Yoshi collapsed in on himself with another groan, not even trying to fend off the overzealous pair of teens that flew at him from the doorway. Though he _was_ slightly relieved that his brother didn't see fit to punch their daylights out before they got anywhere near him. Judging from the way Tsuna had twitched, there was no guarantee that the lack of violence would last if they continued to remain as noisy as they were being. Predictably, halfway through Gokudera's wail of a promise that they would _never_ be separated ever again (a terrifying prospect to consider), Tsuna excused himself, and headed out of the infirmary without another word.

"Who was that?" Yamamoto asked suddenly.

Yoshi blinked up at him, honestly confused.

"…he looked exactly like me, Yamamoto-kun. He's my older brother, of course."

Gokudera pulled himself up from the dogeza he'd prostrated himself in at the foot of the bed, wide eyed.

"You have an _identical_ _twin,_ Juudaime?" he asked, looking awed. Before Yoshi could sigh and say, no, they weren't really identical even if they _did_ look an awful lot like each other they were still fraternal and no, that _still_ didn't mean they could read each other's thoughts or 'feel each other's pain', Gokudera managed to silence him by rattling away the statistics and probability of twin births in Asia, barely pausing for breath before launching into other miscellaneous _biological facts_ about twin births.

Which were, frankly, more than a little disturbing to hear, but something in him was more than a little relieved to hear his friend geeking out over the biology of twin births rather than asking asinine questions about Yoshi being one in a pair of twins. At least the facts were easier to tune out, while he glanced up at the odd frown on Yamamoto's face. Since, apparently, Yamamoto _hadn't_ realised that his brother looked almost exactly the same as him.

"You feel different," Yamamoto explained later, when they were walking home. His brother hadn't turned up again, after disappearing from the infirmary, but Yoshi hadn't been too worried. Knowing him, he'd vanished to hunt down either Kyouya-san or Ryohei-nii. Or both of them.

"Feel different?" Gokudera looked surprisingly curious. He still had his spectacles on – he had spent most of the last few classes staring at his phone screen, hunting down more information about twin births and any possible congenital health issues that might be more likely to affect one in a pair of twins. It had had most of the girls in class effectively gutted for most of the school day, much to both Yoshi and Yamamoto's amusement.

Yamamoto nodded slowly.

"Yoshi feels…. Welcoming. Warm. I couldn't see how similar they looked because Tsuna-san feels absolutely cold. And harsh. And… I don't know. It reminds me of someone."

"Kyoya-san, probably," Yoshi cut in, smiling softly up at Yamamoto. Yamamoto stopped, thinking it over seriously, before nodding.

"That's it. You're right, Yoshi. It reminds me of that time the kid had all of us playing around with those holographic rings he brought us. When Hibari crashed the picnic? Yeah, it felt exactly like that."

The comment had Gokudera hunching over slightly, first looking incensed at the 'holographic rings' comment, and then looking thoughtful.

"That was training to work with Flame technology, right, Juudaime? I remember Reborn-san saying that Hibari was qualified for being a Cloud. Is that your brother's Flame alignment?"

Yoshi nodded back, grinning at the wide eyed looks the admission got him.

"Tsuna's always been a Cloud, even when we were tiny. He's never even shown a hint of any other kind of Flame alignment – not like you, Gokudera-kun."

That just seemed to make Gokudera even more curious. Yamamoto was frowning suddenly, and all of a sudden, when he noticed the sharp look in Yamamoto's eyes, he knew his brother had managed to thrust change into his life without actively attempting to do so. Like always.

"I thought the kid had said that the kind of active training and identification of Flame alignments they're putting us through was something recent? How'd anyone know that Tsuna-san had a Cloud flame, if you found out when you were kids?"

Gokudera made a strange, wheezing sound – like a balloon with the air escaping it from some invisible tear in the rubber. If Yoshi's intuition hadn't warned him that something big was coming, he would have looked just as gutted as Gokudera did. He didn't think _anything_ would make Yamamoto talk seriously about all the weird stuff Reborn made them do – heck, even the shape shifting baseball bats and Gokudera throwing sticks of dynamite around hadn't made him stop to ask what the hell was going on. It just figured that _Tsuna_ would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Apparently they could always identify a flame if it every manifested. Especially if it's a flame as pure as Tsuna's – or mine. We found out I was a Sky at around the same time. Actively using technology and experimentation to draw out a flame and train it is something new, though. Tsuna knows some people studying the phenomenon in Italy, so he'd probably have more information. We could ask him later, if you want to know more." He offered. Gokudera immediately bounced from dazed to eagerly interested – even if he tended to go off on SF rants every once in a while, he always _had_ been very interested in the theoretical side of the technology they were learning to use. Not enough to actually become a researcher, he'd been quick to tell Reborn, but he wanted to know what made things tick.

 _Geek,_ Yoshi thought fondly, and turned around to keep walking home when Yamamoto didn't bring up any more questions. They didn't keep quiet for too long, bursting with commentary and curiosity the moment they'd actually digested what Yoshi had to say, and Yoshi couldn't contain his laughter as he tried to reply to everything being asked.

X

"What happened to looking out for my kid brother, Kyoya. Don't you remember promising me that you wouldn't let anyone touch him?"

More than one person in the committee meeting room jerked in surprise, not noticing that the door had slid open and shut in just enough time to let someone in. Tetsuya blinked bemusedly, taking in the sight of… Sawada Yoshiyasu? Sawada Yoshiyasu standing, calm as you please, directing his words at the Disciplinary Committee head without any hesitation at all.

It took a few more seconds to realise that whoever the person that had stepped into the room way, it _wasn't_ Sawada Yoshiyasu. His calm, self-possessed bearing aside, he wasn't even dressed in the uniform of Nami-chuu, and every student enrolled in the school knew that being seen on school grounds out of uniform was enough reason to be bitten to death by the Head of the Disciplinary Committee. His observation that this _couldn't_ be Sawada was supported by the fact that Hibari didn't look at all irate at being interrupted, even if he usually tended to be on the edge, waiting for the weekly meetings to end so he could get away from all the noise and bustle that the Disciplinary Committee could make when stuffed into a small room together.

If anything, Hibari looked _surprised._ It wouldn't have been obvious to anyone else, but Tetsuya had been stumbling and marching after Hibari since they'd both been toddlers – even if his face was blank, those slightly widened eyes all but yelled that Hibari was surprised.

"…Carnivore," he said after a moment's pause, his voice echoing in the otherwise silent room.

Tetsuya distinctly felt something crack in his head.

The teen in front of them gave a placid smile. It had Hibari rising to his feet without another word, and following the teen back out the door, leaving the Committee behind to burst into confused chatter behind them. Tetsuya sighed, and tried to bring some order back.

If Hibari chose to come back any time soon, he would have knocked out every person in the room if he didn't get them to shut up and come to some kind of decorum sometime soon.

He guessed he shouldn't have been surprised that Hibari wasn't back even by the time the meeting ended.

X

" _How much further, tou-san?"_

 _Iemitsu glanced back at his little boy, sitting with his seat belt on and staring out the window at the passing countryside, looking enraptured. He smiled despite himself - Tsuna looked too cute for words, face screwed up in concentration as he seriously concentrated on what he was seeing._

" _Not too long now, Tuna-fish." He said cheerfully, looking back at the road. He didn't need to watch his son to know that that comment had gotten him a dirty look._

 _After the disastrous first meeting in which Timoteo had met Yoshi and Tsuna, he had been ordered to bring his eldest back to Palermo with him. Iemitsu still wasn't happy with the decision Timoteo had taken, and had nearly exercised his right as consigliere to strongly question the old man's choice to separate Iemitsu's twin sons, but he had finally decided to acquiesce to the Don's demand. If only to ensure that Tsuna wouldn't permanently harmonise with his brother at such a young age._

 _The signs had been obvious since the first time Yoshi had actively manifested his Sky flame. Even if Tsuna hadn't manifested_ his _flames at that point, neither Iemitsu nor Nana had failed to notice the way Tsuna just… stopped talking to other children. And became excessively violent whenever any of the older children played rough with the younger kids – particularly if Yoshi was involved. He still smiled, he was still the sweet boy and loving older brother that he'd always been, but somehow, it was as though everyone outside Yoshi had stopped existing. They were present, but Tsuna never really acknowledged them. Iemitsu strongly suspected that the only reason he and Nana weren't subjected to the same treatment was because they were still linked by familial bonds._

 _It was only after Tsuna's violent reaction to Timoteo attempting to seal Yoshi's flames, and his subsequent manifestation of_ his _flames, that Iemitsu understood why his reaction to anyone threatening Yoshi had been as… unnervingly violent as it had been._

' _Cloud flames. Of_ course _they had to be a pair of twins with Sky and Cloud flames,' he thought ruefully, glancing back again. Tsuna was kicking his legs idly, humming with a small smile, gaze still directed outside._

 _If only they'd manifested in their teenage years, like most children usually did. Iemitsu strongly doubted Yoshi would ever find as complimentary a Cloud as his brother. If there was any way to avoid shifting Tsuna's bond to another holder of Sky flames in the Family, Iemitsu would have jumped on it with absolutely no hesitation, but the strength of their manifestation and bond was too strong. Timoteo himself had said that, if his bond with Visconti had been so strong at such a young age, nothing would have kept Visconti away from him. The Ninth Generation Cloud Guardian had agreed to the observation without hesitation, eyes cold. He would have worn down mountains, if that was what was required of him. Finding some way to return to Japan would have been nothing in comparison._

 _The dangers of such a strong bond aside, Iemitsu did_ not _want to leave his sons open to the kind of exploitation that that level of desperation could attract._

 _They reached the entrance to the Estate grounds much faster than Iemitsu expected. While he stopped down for security without needing to be directed, the guards only made him wait for long enough to confirm that he or Tsuna weren't Mist users in disguise before sending him on his way. It didn't take much longer than that to draw up before the doors of the Main House._

 _When he glanced back with a smile to say something to his son though, it was to see that Tsuna's focus on the countryside had waned. He felt his heart thud heavily in his chest when he noticed the blank, dull glow in his son's eyes. It was too familiar to not recognise._

" _Tsuna!" he snapped, and consciousness abruptly returned to Tsuna's face. When he realised that they had stopped in front of the large estate house, his face lit up with a bright smile._

" _We're here!"_

 _Iemitsu willed a smile on his face. It felt more like a grimace._

" _Yes we are, son. Let's get you out. We're a little early to meet Jii-chan, but I don't think he'll mind."_

"' _Kaaaay," Tsuna hummed brightly. So lively. So unlike the shy child he had been before his flames had manifested, even if the core of the caring, loyal child he was still shone through._

 _Of course, in the time he got the doors open and turned to hand his keys over to the attendant that had been waiting for him by the stairs, Tsuna suddenly decided to veer off in the direction of the gardens towards the back of the house. Iemitsu hurriedly tossed his keys at the attendant and ran after his son. Try as he did, though, he wasn't quite able to catch up to him. Tsuna was rushing with the same kind of single minded intensity that Iemitsu had seen whenever Yoshi had gotten into any kind of trouble in the last year, both at home and outside._

 _Tsuna just keeps moving, impervious to every call Iemitsu makes, and finally, after turning one last corner, he stops short, reduced to staring in silent horror as Tsuna barrels directly into the tall form striding with some unnamed purpose towards the Main House from the gardens._

 _Timoteo had ordered him to bring Tsuna to the Main House with the hope that he would harmonise with any one of Timoteo's sons. Because, while allowing Tsuna to bond with a Sky as young as Yoshi could be dangerous in the long run, an older Sky whose impact was already tempered by other Guardians wouldn't warp him nearly as much. Iemitsu had been praying to any higher power out there still willing to listen to him, hoping that Tsuna would harmonise with Frederico. While Enrico still hadn't selected or naturally harmonised with anyone possessing Cloud flames either, and while Frederico was Timoteo's preferred candidate for the title of Decimo, Iemitsu believed that Enrico would be the one to finally become Decimo. And so, ultimately, Tsuna would be relatively safe. Massimo was another option, too, but the less said about Massimo the better. But, even_ Massimo _might have been a better option than- than-_

This _. This?_ _Was the very opposite of anything remotely safe._

 _Xanxus somehow looked as though he'd been gutted, staring down in mute shock at the small form clinging to his legs and smiling up at him. And Iemitsu could only watch as the most arrogant, bull-headed and violent of Timoteo's sons fell to his knees, hands clenching tight over Tsuna's shoulders._

" _You're so_ small," _he whispered, nearly reverent._

 _Tsuna simply laughed, and reached up with both arms. Iemitsu felt sick, and helpless, watching as the one man he trusted the least in the succession to the seat of Vongola Decimo enfolded his six year old son in a tight embrace, utterly unhesitant even though he was notorious for his aversion to shows of affection to anyone he wasn't planning on bedding. The thought horrifies him for all of a second before reason and sanity bring his paranoia to heel. Xanxus might have been a monster of several names and proclivities, the veritable nightmare of any enemy of the Vongola, but he'd never been that specific brand of monster. If anything, his hatred of paedophiles and distaste for child prostitution was near legendary in the Underground._

 _Seemingly returning from the thrall that Harmony - and it_ was _harmony, Iemitsu had no doubt – had brought him under, Xanxus reflexively clutched Tsuna even closer to him, wild-eyed, making the Iemitsu's son squeak. And it was only then that Xanxus finally caught sight of him, brows lowering in distaste as he rose to his feet, Tsuna easily balanced in the crook of his arm. Iemitsu grimaced, but one glance at his smiling son makes him steel himself and step forward to meet the wary looking Varia Boss head on._

 _They're interrupted by Squalo suddenly appearing at Xanxus' side, short, bone-white hair a windswept mess on the top of his head. Xanxus' Rain Guardian looks overcome with disbelief, and he ignores both Iemitsu and his Boss in favour of leaning forward to peer at Tsuna in sheer incredulity. Tsuna gives him a small, shy smile, no less bright for its size, and declares "Tsuna desu!" in a clear, if soft, voice._

 _Both men twitched. Iemitsu did too, if for completely different reasons. His little Tuna-fish looked so adorable! It was only through strength of will and, admittedly, the sight of Tsuna reaching out to play with the long, colourful feathers flowing down Xanxus' left shoulder, that he brought his attention back to the situation at hand._

"… _Japanese? The fuck?" Squalo muttered, after a long moment of confusion._

 _Xanxus didn't look any better off. Iemitsu wants to protest, and protest strongly, at this turn of events, but his intuition all but chimes in his head, warning him to tread lightly. For once, he's willing to anything it tells him, since he'd already lost time in contacting Timoteo a whole year late, the last time around._ _He's already dragged his son away from his first choice of Sky, and his intuition whispers that Tsuna wouldn't survive being pulled away a second time. Not when his flames had harmonised so strongly with Xanxus. And even if he did survive, he would never forgive Iemitsu._

 _He hated himself for giving in to the urge to protect that relationship. He loved his son, he loved both his sons. What he'd done already ensured that neither would truly trust him any longer, but he didn't want that lack of trust to translate to hatred. A good father would have ignored that, would have pulled Tsuna away from Xanxus and splintered the bond that had formed if it meant that Tsuna would be safer for it. But Iemitsu couldn't do it. He was too selfish to even try._

 _"...this is Sawada Tsunayoshi. My eldest." He said, once he coaxed the words free from the leaden ball in his gut. Xanxus and Squalo's gazes immediately jerked up to stare at him._

 _"Someone actually let you procreate?!" asked Xanxus incredulously. Iemitsu attempted to paste a smile on his face, but judging by the way Squalo cringed beside his Boss, he wasn't particularly successful._

 _"That's my precious son you've got in your arms, brat. Try not to hurt him," he said, and was alarmed by just how much he meant the words._

 _From the way Xanxus' arms went rigid, he was nearly as alarmed as Iemitsu. Squalo gave a sudden bark of laughter, and reached out to pat Tsuna on the head, making Tsuna giggle, mushing his face into Xanxus' throat. The careless action didn't make Xanxus any less rigid._

 _"We'll take good care of him, Sawada." Said Squalo snidely. The wide, sharp toothed smile on his face made Iemitsu sick to the gut._

 _"That's what I'm afraid of. Here, Tsuna. Come to papa, we need to meet Jii-chan, okay?" He said, switching back to Japanese midway through. Xanxus made a curious noise, while Tsuna proceeded to tangle the fingers of both his little hands in the riot of feathers and fur that he'd already tugged awry, ignoring his father the entire way through._

 _Squalo abruptly jerked around to stare at Iemitsu._

 _"He's supposed to be the candidate Massimo mentioned?" He asked, shocked. Iemitsu winced, but nodded in spite of himself._

 _"What?" Xanxus asked sharply, the harsh tone of his voice incongruous when taken alongside the broad hand he rested comfortingly on Tsuna's back. The gentleness of that motion, even if it did seem at odds with everything he knew or had heard about the Varia Boss, made Iemitsu feel a little more secure about the situation._

 _"Massimo said that the Don was bringing in a possible guardian candidate for his kids. A Cloud candidate." Squalo growled back, scowling. Iemitsu was ruefully amused, watching Xanxus' eyes actually round with shock before he controlled his immediate reaction._

 _"That would be my son, yes. He manifested his flames recently, and they registered strong and pure enough that we had to either seal his flames or see if he harmonized with any of the Skies in the family. He was vulnerable otherwise. Timoteo visited last month to actually meet my sons and see what would be the best option."_

 _"...sons?" Xanxus asked suspiciously. Iemitsu smiled painfully, but the question was answered by Tsuna instead._

 _"My otouto! Yoshi!"_

 _They all blinked down at the young boy. Tsuna blinked back at them, positively innocent._

 _"...he isn't supposed to understand Italian, is he." Said Squalo after a long moment of silence._

 _"...no." Said Iemitsu, suddenly feeling exhausted, even though it was still far too early in the day to feel that drained._

 _"He understood because I was the one asking." Said Xanxus, firm. Iemitsu and Squalo blinked, glanced first at each other in a heretofore unprecedented moment of empathy, before glancing back at the youngest of the Vongola line._

 _"Because you've harmonized, you mean?" Iemitsu hazarded. He wasn't quite sure if Harmony could work that way, since his Flame manifestation had never required harmonizing with other flames to the extent most Skies did. It was one of the main reasons why Timoteo hadn't ever considered him a viable heir even after he'd proven that he wasn't interested in sabotaging the current line of succession._

 _"Yes. Come on, I may as well meet the old man with you, he isn't going to believe I managed to reel in the brat this quickly otherwise. Squalo, get back to the Compound and let the others know that I have another guardian. And that he's too young and untrained to be directly inducted into the Varia."_

 _"Got it, Boss."_

 _Iemitsu felt the breath in his lung escape in a deep gust of breath, the relief as sweet the first sip of water when rescued from being lost in the desert for days. He fell into step with the younger man as he strode past without another word._

 _Tsuna was smiling at him, he noticed after a moment. His son's eyes were thoughtful in a way no five year old's eyes should be, tinged a deep purple, but the colour slowly leeched away the longer he watched._

 _He didn't need his intuition to tell him he'd dodged a bullet when he'd chosen not to question the fledgling bond that had developed between his son and Xanxus. He shivered. He loved his sons, his little family with Nana, with a desperation that he could barely begin to explain or qualify if asked to describe it. He doubted his sons would ever be able to understand just how much they meant to him, though he knew Nana already knew all too well._

 _That didn't mean that he couldn't be terrified of them. Terrified for them._

 _And if Tsuna's manifestation had given him the nearly preternatural connection to the Vongola intuition that Iemitsu had inherited and had been damn near haunted by for most of his life… Well. At the very least, he could say he knew what to expect._

X

 _(Except he didn't, not really. For all that the intuition had dogged his footsteps since he'd been a teen, which was when it had first manifested in him, he'd spent years doing his level best to ignore it. With how early it had manifested in his son, and the fact that Tsuna had absolutely no reason to ignore a sense that had always been there, there was every possibility that it would have a far more drastic effect on his personality. Iemitsu had_ no _idea what to expect. He'd been the first of the Sawada line to show any overt signs of the intuition, and Tsuna was set to outstrip him by a rather large margin._

 _He was equally caught between fatherly pride and human terror at that achievement. Though every moment he saw his son's eyes glinting with the sign of a nearly alien intelligence shifted the needle closer to terror than pride.)_

X

It had been roughly ten minutes. Yoshi glanced over his shoulder, taking in the glazed look in Gokudera's eyes, shrugged to himself, and looked out the window again.

"Chip, Yoshi?"

"Aa, thanks, Yamamoto-kun."

Yoshi reached down for the bag Yamamoto was holding in his direction without actually looking down. After munching his way through the few he'd grabbed, he idly licked the salt off of his fingers and looked over his shoulder again.

Nope. Still glazed over.

Yoshi sighed, and leaned out, letting his arms hang loosely outside, chin propped up on the window ledge.

"Oh? I see we're all having a lazy day."

Yoshi started, and yelped when the he managed to scratch himself along the soft underside of his jaw. From the sound the thud from beneath, Yamamoto's head had slammed into the wall, so at least he wasn't the only one who got hurt.

He shot a dirty look at the pint sized hitman who'd appeared right next to him on the ledge.

"Did you _have_ to do that, Reborn-san?" he asked, exasperated. Reborn gave him a mild, who-me-what'd- _I-_ do look that did nothing to hide the glimmer of sadistic humour in his eyes.

Reborn's sneaking up on them seemed to be the nudge that Gokudera had needed, though, because he wheezed and folded up where they had left him roughly fifteen minutes ago, in perfect seiza in front of the little table Yoshi had set up once he had friends who actually followed him home or appeared at all hours of the day, completely unexpected and uncalled for.

"Cloud Fist," he said faintly.

Yoshi stiffened, not needing to look to his side to know that Reborn had gone very, _very_ still beside him. Yamamoto glanced up with a lazy motion, eyes sharp and interested.

"That- Juudaime, that can't be possible." Gokudera repeated, beginning to look more disturbed by the second. Making a face, Yoshi allowed himself to slide down the wall he'd been leaning against, coming to rest right beside Yamamoto. Who had, rather uncomfortably, chosen to shift his gaze to Yoshi instead.

"It's very possible. We're _both_ our father's sons, after all. That means he has as much right to be a part of the Vongola as I do." Yoshi countered, exasperated. What went unsaid was that they both had the equal right to _not_ be involved with the Vongola, too.

From the pained glance Gokudera shot him, he'd definitely caught the unspoken words. Good. He'd hammer them in as many times as he could – _no one_ could force him to be a part of the Famiglia, even if the fact that his twin was one of Xanxus' guardians made him a walking target, whether or not he chose to join.

…Reborn being sent to be his tutor didn't make his joining the Vongola done thing either. No matter what his father and the Don thought. At least Reborn hadn't announced himself with the promise of fashioning him as the next heir. Even if that had been Yoshi's first expectation when the Sun Arcobaleno had appeared at his doorstep with the offer to be his home tutor. Reborn _did_ have a reputation, after all.

"But _Juudaime,"_ Gokudera all but whimpered.

"Why is it so strange?" Yamamoto asked curiously, turning to look at Reborn when he hopped down to balance comfortably on Yoshi's shoulder.

"Because the Cloud Fist is one of the Varia's most ruthless enforcers," Gokudera snapped back, voice still caught somewhere between horror and disbelief.

Yoshi sighed, again, and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. The tiny fingers catching at the hinge of his jaw made him mumble something uncomplimentary under his breath and straighten in spite of himself.

He'd heard enough of Reborn's lessons and advice over the past few months that he could already tell exactly why his tutor wanted him to speak up. _Your Family is alarmed. It's your duty to reassure them._

Now if only that lesson had been couched words of friendship, instead of the family business. Pun very much intended.

"Tsuna-nii _is_ Xanxus' Cloud Guardian, Gokudera-kun. If that makes him the same person as this Cloud Fist that you're talking about, so be it."

Gokudera shot a plaintive look at Yoshi, clearly still reeling in the after-effect of Yoshi's declaration. Yamamoto hummed curiously.

"But why is that a bad thing? I still don't understand."

Gokudera shot him a dirty look.

"I can't expect you to understand, baseball-idiot. I just… I didn't know that the Cloud Fist and Juudaime's brother were the same person."

Yoshi and Yamamoto both frowned at him. Gokudera winced and looked away.

Meaning, rather than not knowing that Tsuna and the 'Cloud Fist' were the same person - which was impossible anyway, since Gokudera hadn't even known that Yoshi had a brother, let alone one already in the Vongola – what was bothering Gokudera was the fact that Yoshi had a brother who was a member of the Varia. Which… was strangely hypocritical, judging by what little of Gokudera's history Reborn had chosen to share with him. The half-Italian had already _been_ a hitman, after all. If not a career hitman, which wasn't likely at their age. Not unless they'd started while much younger.

Which his brother had, Yoshi knew. Tsuna wasn't precisely a hitman, he'd been attached to Xanxus and the Varia much before he could fall into that lifestyle, but he'd been trained to be a Varia member from the moment he'd become Xanxus' Cloud Guardian. Even when Tsuna spent only holidays at the Varia Compound, being ferried back to Namimori for the school year every year until they graduated from Elementary school, Yoshi had easily been able to see the changes in his brother. They weren't big, the Varia had clearly just built on the essence of something that had always been there in his brother, but it was still enough of a change for Yoshi to notice.

Watching Gokudera's hunched shoulders for another moment, Yoshi's expression slowly cleared when he realized what the problem was.

"Gokudera-kun. My brother being a member of Vongola's Execution Wing doesn't mean that I specifically condone his actions."

Gokudera jerked around to stare at him, wide-eyed. Yoshi nodded slowly to himself, his intuition ringing with the truth of what he'd figured out.

"That's doesn't mean that I don't condone them, either. What my brother does is his business, Gokudera-kun, and what I do is mine. I should have thought this would already by obvious, seeing as I continue to have very little interest in joining the Vongola even when my father is apparently the Vongola's Red Lion." He continued, voice turning just a little snide.

Reborn seemed to twitch when he was standing on Yoshi's shoulder, and he gave a soft snort.

"I should have known you'd know about that," he said blandly.

Yoshi rolled his eyes.

"Tsuna-nii's been going back and forth between Palermo and Namimori since we were five, Reborn-san. And we don't hide anything from each other. It would've been _very_ difficult to not know about that, or about what Tsuna-nii gets up to in the Varia. It's the _Varia."_ He said, exasperated.

"Ow," he grumbled, right after, when Reborn saw fit to whack him across the top of his head.

"That's for being a cheeky brat." Reborn said sweetly, making Yamamoto snicker beside him.

Gokudera still looked a little disbelieving, but he ducked his head when Reborn pointedly asked if there was going to be a problem.

"No," he murmured. "It's Juudaime. I knew that he was related to the CEDEF head, I just hadn't… consciously recognized what that would mean. Finding out about Tsuna-sama just shoved that fact in a little harder, is all."

Yoshi eyed him, and felt his lips twitch into a wry smile.

"He isn't going to like being called that, y'know."

Gokudera shot him a stubborn look.

"Tsuna-sama is Tsuna-sama."

Yamamoto burst into low laughter, muffling his snickers in his sleeves at the expression on Yoshi's face. Yoshi groaned, and elbowed him pointedly, trying to get him to stop. One day, he would get Yamamoto to stop laughing at him. He _would._

Reborn hopped onto the table and pointedly cleared his throat.

"It's been nearly two hours since all of you came home. I trust you've gotten started on your homework?"

 _That_ brought Yamamoto's laughter to a quick halt. He and Yoshi leapt for their bags, laughing nervously at the dark look this earned them from the tutor. When Yoshi looked up from his books, Gokudera already had a workbook out to discuss with Reborn. Of course.

Seeing the look on Tsuna's face when he was welcomed home with Gokudera's prostrated form and a babble of nearly archaic Japanese was well worth the awkwardness of the whole debacle, anyway.

X

 _Reborn frowned, still not quite sure of what to think about seeing someone roughly the same size as him wandering freely around the Estate. The child, brown eyed and fluffy haired, smiled back at him, painfully cute for all of a second before his face lost that moment of nearly arresting charm._

 _Reborn twitched._

' _A young Sky?' he wondered, in spite of himself. He hadn't heard about any new Sky Flame aligned children being born into the Vongola. Not that hearing about it was in any way good news, since it would mean that the Estate would be hit with a slew of kidnapping attempts in short order._

 _The child reached out for him, and Reborn sighed, not quite able to find it in himself to slam the child down. The time he'd spent at the Cavallone Estate had… softened him, to the whims of a child. At least he was able to work at smashing those whims right out of the Cavallone heir, even if the effort was still mostly uphill. This child was too small and helpless to crush beneath his fists or feet._

 _And the child wasn't being particularly impolite, so Reborn was willing to be a little more patient. Just a little._

… _Fuck, Lal, Colonello and Fon weren't going to let him hear the end of this, were they. Colonello and Fon had been needling at him ever since word got out that the newest of the requests Don Nono had made of him had been to train the Cavallone heir. Lal had been… withholding commentary, but if she found out that the debacle had actually made him willing to suffer other children… No. He really wouldn't hear the end of it._

" _Hello. I'm Tsuna," the child said in careful Italian. There was a clear undercurrent of an Asian accent, and it was the matter of a split second for Reborn to identify the underlying accent as Japanese._

 _Interesting. The child_ did _have some distinctly Asian features, but somehow, they hadn't quite registered as Asian until Reborn had actually heard him speak._

" _Well met," Reborn replied. The child looked confused, and Reborn sighed again, and repeated himself in Japanese._

 _The boy treated him to a nearly unbearably adorable scowl. Reborn's brows slowly rose, bemused._

" _I. Am. Tsuna. It's nice to meet you." He repeated, doggedly continuing in Italian. Reborn blinked at that, and found himself stifling chuckles, pleasantly surprised._

" _And I am Reborn. It's nice to meet you as well, child." He said, making it a point to reply in the same language, and speaking slowly so the boy could actually catch the words. The boy, Tsuna, had his face screwed up in serious concentration, but a smile pasted itself across his lips in the end, clearly understanding exactly what Reborn had said._

" _And what are you doing here, so far from home?" he asked, silently damning his insatiable curiosity. It was what had started the interaction and the trading of favours between him and Timoteo, after all. It was terribly amusing to watch the man now well settled into his role as the Vongola head, and actually having brats of his own. He could still remember Timoteo toddling along as a young man in Daniela's shadow. He had long made a place for himself, but that didn't stop Reborn from laughing at him or his struggles with his children. The next generation of the family was filled with whole legions of troublemakers._

 _Speaking of which, there was one headed his way now._

 _The young contender for the title of Sword Emperor looked unnaturally harried, Reborn was quick to note. At least, he'd never seen Superbi quite so vexed while outside the company of his Boss._

" _VOIIIII! BRAT!" he yelled, stalking straight past the alcove Reborn and Tsuna were tucked into._

 _Reborn stared after him, and turned a thoughtful glance on the child that had tucked himself away behind Reborn the moment Superbi had rounded the bend._

 _Tsuna had a surprisingly crafty smile on his face. It made him look at once both younger and older than the age that Reborn had mentally tacked on to him._

 _Reborn's lips slowly lifted into a sharp smirk._

" _Brat?" he asked, amused._

" _Un!" Tsuna declared, giggling._

" _Well, now. I'm sure we can find somewhere else to be. This way, brat."_

 _Reborn found himself chuckling, even as he led the kid away in the opposite direction. He had no idea who the fuck the little potential-Sky was, or even if he was a Sky at all, but getting one over the Shark-brat could only be a good thing._

 _If he played his cards right, he might even be able to stand back and watch the pretty fireworks when Superbi finally managed to track them down. He wasn't completely incompetent, from what Reborn had heard._

 _He was still bemused when he realized, nearly a whole five minutes after they'd left in search of a suitable hiding place, that Tsuna had managed to hold hands with him the entire time since they'd met._

X

"You owe me a spar," Kyoya said, stretching himself out on the roof.

Tsuna grunted, and dropped down on his other side, leaning against the parapet, closing his eyes.

"Maybe later. Kyoya, you were _supposed to look after him."_

"He's never been hurt, Carnivore. Your whining is unbecoming."

"I'm not whining. A promise is a promise. And you haven't kept yours, not if the first thing I see when I step into your territory is someone threatening what. Is. _Mine._ " The Sawada ground out, sounding utterly exasperated. Not irate, which was a good thing. Kyoya wasn't interested in disciplining him – he wanted to _savour_ that spar. Wasting their first meeting on reminding Tsuna of their agreement was a waste of that spar.

From the amused sound that Tsuna made, he could clearly tell what Kyoya was thinking. Kyoya pointedly turned away.

"You've somehow managed to sprout like a beanstalk while I've been away. It hasn't even been three months, Kyoya. This can't be fair."

Kyoya grunted, and aimed a pointed kick in the Carnivore's direction. Tsuna laughed, and leaned out of the way.

"You're as much fun as always. I swear, Boss would get such a kick out of meeting you."

"I'm not coming with you to Italy." Kyoya said blandly.

"No way, I don't want you in Palermo. Who's going to keep an eye on my brother and mom if you aren't here to take care of Namimori?" Tsuna shot back.

Kyoya's smile in response to that was all teeth. It was good to know that the months away hadn't changed the status quo. Sawada had always had a good understanding of the lines of contact woven between them, though.

To think that his father had assumed he would never be willing to accept another apex predator in his territory. His mother had known better, thankfully.

Then again, he mused, Tsuna was so… unassuming. He always had been unassuming, even when they were a lot younger. The feet nudging at him didn't seem as though the belonged to a carnivore with teeth that could bite as sharp and true as his own.

"The fake-herbivore needs to grow fangs already." He said idly, once Tsuna had subsided.

The other carnivore sighed, and Kyoya could hear him slide down where he'd been seated.

"You're calling him an herbivore, Kyoya. He doesn't _need_ fangs."

"Doesn't he? I thought he was a baby carnivore in disguise." Kyoya threw back snidely. Tsuna groaned, and banged his head against the wall.

"Your animal kingdom metaphors are so confusing. I didn't miss them at all. Okay, okay, I'm sorry! Gah, don't use your damned tonfa, this was supposed to be restful, we're _not sparring on the bloody roof Kyoya-"_

The next few minutes passed in a blur, but they both subsided quickly. Neither of them wanted to waste that spar, after all. Kyoya eyed the black leather gloves on Tsuna's hands with a hungry gaze. They'd been covered with purple flames just a moment ago, glimmering bright, and looked completely innocuous now.

"I'm still not teaching you how to do that. You're destructive enough on your own. Ask Reborn, you must've noticed him around by now – at least he's around enough to know when you're actually going to need it."

"The baby? I've already seen him training the fake-herbivore and his herd."

"…meaning, you say you don't need to be trained and that you'll figure it out for yourself."

The bland look Kyoya shot him said _yes, exactly._

Tsuna's lips split in a wide grin, looking positively delighted.

"If anyone can do it, you can, Kyoya. I'm around for a bit, I'm checking something out here. Figure it out before I leave and _then_ we'll have that spar. It'll be glorious."

Kyoya eyed him, let the shape of that thought fit into his mind. And smiled.

Yes. It _would_ be glorious.

"So, did anything interesting happen since I left?"

Kyoya huffed, and rolled his eyes, but he _did_ roll over to indulge the other carnivore. Judging by what had happened in the corridors earlier, the herbivores in the school were becoming uppity.

Perhaps he would have an actual hunting mate to cull the herd again. He _had_ missed the company. Tetsuya was a good second, but having another carnivore to hunt beside, whose senses he could trust, was… enjoyable. Satisfying.

The feral edge Tsuna's grin took, only a momentary glimpse before he tucked those edges away, made Kyoya's smile broaden.

"A few things. There seem to be a group of third years that have been crowding." he offered.

Sawada's head tilted to the side, thoughtful. He nodded, eyes gleaming with a hint of purple before they settled back to brown.

Kyoya sighed contently, stretching and relaxing in the warmth of the sun, ignoring the feet that nudged at him again.

X

 _Xanxus was still deep in sleep when the door to his room slammed open. The soft body spooning his back whines, and the sound is shrill and irritating enough that Xanxus is tempted to drag a pillow over his head. Gratifyingly enough, the person who's stepped into his room didn't hesitate to brusquely throw the sheets off the girl at his back and drag her out of bed._

" _Get moving already, it's daybreak and Boss has better things to do than coddle you on a Monday."_

 _"You can't talk to me like that - Xanxus, tell him he can't talk to me like that! Who the hell do you think you are, little boy-"_

 _"I'm the one who actually lives in the Compound and has free access to the Boss' rooms at all times of the day, Miss. Trust me when I say he doesn't want you around anymore."_

 _Sighing gustily, he decided to give in to the urge and dragged his sheets and the pillows slightly higher, shielding his ears from the sound of yelling and the inevitable tears as the girl redressed and flounced out of the room. And then, there was sweet, sweet silence until Tsuna dragged the sheets back down._

 _"I need to go back home."_

 _Grunting, he peered up at the head of fluffy brown hair staring down at him. Tsuna was bright eyed and already dressed for the day, looking more like one of the well-dressed young capos waltzing around the Main House than one of Xanxus' most hard hearted assassins._

 _"Your brother call you or something?" Xanxus growled, after the silent impasse proved that Tsuna wasn't going to be backing down._

 _"No, but I need to go back anyway, I can tell. Dad's been acting weird."_

 _Xanxus cursed under his breath, but he wearily heaved himself out of the comfortable cocoon of silken sheets and bedding that he'd been immersed in. If nothing else, the sight of Tsuna's face screwing up in disgust made the effort worth it._

 _"You_ reek _, Boss."_

 _"Seeing as this is the closest you're getting to sex at any point of time unless you suddenly decide to switch your proclivities, you may get use the opportunity to get desensitized. What else did you expect, barging in this early in the morning?" He shot back snidely, smirking at the disgusted look it got him._

 _"If I didn't care for you as much as I do, I would send Levi in in the mornings instead." Tsuna said, voice dry as dust._

 _"Does this mean you're not going to give us a hug then?" Xanxus jeered, and there was a split second of silence before Tsuna caved in to the laughter he'd been holding at bay._

 _"You're_ horrible _, Boss."_

 _"I'd say the fucking same, brat. The only reason you don't send Levi in in the mornings if I have company is because you don't want to clear up the bodies that'll be left behind. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's any other reason."_

 _"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I just want to spare you the headache." Tsuna said sweetly. Xanxus rolled his eyes, and easily pulled himself out of bed._

 _"When do you plan on leaving, then?" He asked, running a hand through his hair roughly and biting back a yawn._

 _Tsuna pointedly steered him in the direction of the bathroom, and ducked the elbow aimed at his head without pause._

 _"The first flight out of Palermo, Boss. If you give me the permission to leave."_ Which you already do, you wouldn't have bothered asking otherwise _was what went unsaid_.

 _Xanxus growled, because fuck all if the brat wasn't actually right._

 _"Go and book your fucking ticket. I want you back if the old man and Sawada create any trouble, you hear me?" He snapped, waiting till he got a silent nod before slamming the door in his face._

X

Whatever Hana had been expecting when she and Kyoko had left school a little later than usual, Kyoko'd had classroom duty and she'd waited because they were supposed to meet up with Haru to go to the patisserie later, it hadn't been the sight of one of the third year delinquents going down with a savage punch to the face. That hadn't even been the worst of the sight - right after punching him, the other fighter got his hands wound in the third year's long, dreadlocked hair and dragged his torso forward in a rough motion, slamming his knee into the boy's gut.

The third year choked up bile and sick, and the other boy kicked him away contemptuously. The sight was violent enough that Hana had just started to wonder where that delinquent prefect boss was, since this was supposed to be _his_ job to clean up before normal students like her and Kyoko wandered into it, before she realised the boy in front of her was actually familiar.

Well, mostly familiar. Even when he wore casual clothes, Hana had never seen Sawada dressed like this, in dark, form fitting trousers, subtly tailored for ease of movement, and a loose, hooded sweatshirt in black and purple. And were those… boots? High heeled boots?

…metal capped, too, she realised, recognising the matte sheen capping the toes and watching with a sick feeling in her gut as Sawada aimed a hard kick at the third year's knee. The sickening crunch that preceded the scream of agony that tore out of the third year's throat made Hana go white, while Kyoko clutched at her elbow, wide eyed.

Sawada was bending to stare at the delinquent laid out on the ground, sobbing messily. The blank look on his face was what made Hana finally yell out, horrified.

"Oi, Sawada! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she demanded.

Kyoko didn't try to pull her back, thankfully. Though she didn't step back either; instead, she straightened out of her shocked slump to meet the curious look their classmate was shooting them with set shoulders and a straight, unbending back.

"Do I know you?" Sawada asked politely. The tone was jarring enough after the violence of the one-sided beat down they'd witnessed that Hana nearly didn't register the actual words.

Kyoko did, though. Immediately.

"Of course you do, Yoshi-kun. I'm Kyoko, this is Hana-"

"That's Sasagawa and Kurokawa to you, you wild monkey!" Hana cut in furiously, but Sawada looked just as confused as before. The expression seemed horribly out of place on Sawada's face, especially when Hana finally noticed the light spatter of blood on his face.

It was only then that she realised that the weeping third year on the ground wasn't the only person laid out around Sawada. There were at least four others, all in similarly pathetic states. One was holding onto his arm and sobbing, and even from a distance Hana could see the unnatural set of one of his shoulders. _Dislocated_ , she realised, after a split second of disbelief. There was another, yet another delinquent third year, who was crying into the ground with – shit. That was a broken leg. _Definitely_ a broken leg, now that Hana was actually starting to pay attention, she could see something white and red sticking out of his trousers-

It was only Kyoko's steadying hand on her back that kept her straight. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she _didn't_ have the stomach to look at any of the others. She stared into Sawada's mild, confused and patiently questioning face and felt sick to her gut because _what. The. Ever-loving. Fuck._ How could she have missed one of her classmates being a total psycho-nutjob?!

The distinctly familiar sound, at least to students of Nami-chuu, of the main body of a tonfa connecting with the back of someone's head had her jerking her gaze around to stare as the delinquent prefect boss himself whirled in place and dispatched another third year coming at him from the back. In the time it took her to blink, the last of the straggling mob that had been trying to attack Hibari had been introduced to the cold, hard bite of reality that was Hibari deciding that he didn't want you anywhere near conscious or in one piece.

The sight of him lazily shaking off any blood still clinging to the steel in his grasp was as terrifying as it was terrifyingly beautiful, in the way watching an eagle swoop down out of the sky to kill was beautiful – the prefect was _very_ good looking as long as you didn't pay attention to the fact that he was flat out crazy.

And it was very, _very_ hard to not pay attention to that fact.

Especially when he was just standing there, staring hopefully at all the unconscious and the not-so-unconscious (just-playing-dead-don't-let-him-notice-me-kaa-chan) third years collapsed all around him.

"Kyoya, you owe me ice-cream!" Sawada called out cheerfully, much to Hana and Kyoko's combined disbelief.

Hibari didn't even look irritated, damn him. He shot Sawada a dark look, which meant zilch to Hana no matter how much she stared, but Sawada rolled his eyes, aiming one last kick at one of the third years he'd taken down – thankfully not the one with the messily broken leg – before casually strolling Hibari's way.

"No, come on. We had a deal, remember? If you took out more of them than me I'd get Yoshi or my mom to make you hamburger steak and if I win you'd get me ice-cream. You don't get to weasel out, you big grump."

Hana reflexively clutched at Kyoko and she comfortingly clutched back, because the look on Hibari's face seemed like it would be more at home on the face of an asura.

Sawada just beamed up at him, and nothing could have convinced Hana that he was a psychotic nutjob more than this. What the hell? She'd actually thought they were friends, acquaintances at the least, what the hell was going-

It was then that she noticed the, otherwise innocuous, reference to himself in the third person. Which, if he was actually suffering from schizophrenia, mental break or any other kind of problem that made him a- a- mental health client, that was the politically correct way to say it right? –

Kyoko cut off her bouncing thoughts with a firm tap between the shoulders before deliberately pushing her to the side and stepping in front.

"You're not Yoshi-kun." She said decisively. Sawada looked back at her with raised eyebrows.

"That was quick. No, I'm not."

Kyoko frowned at him, disapproving of the brevity of his response. Hana could flow with that brevity, she was still reeling under the realisation that this _wasn't_ Sawada. Well, at least, not the one she was reasonably familiar with.

But wait, wasn't that the case even with split personalities?

"Hana-chan, _stop._ I can feel your brain steaming from over here," Kyoko sighed, sounding exasperated, but Hana could hear the smile in her voice.

"Carnivore," Hibari ground out, voice hard.

Sawada glanced back at him, raised an eyebrow, and offered him a smile.

"Tell you what. I think we were close to an even split, anyway. We share the bill and buy enough ice-cream to take home, and I'll text Mom to make hamburger steaks?"

"Crowding," said Hibari, with an impatient shake of his head. Hana stared between the two of them.

Now that the initial freak-out in the face of the violence had settled, watching the two interact was _very_ interesting. Hibari seemed to unconsciously sense her regard, because he sent a blistering look in her direction.

She grinned back at him, even when it made him growl and step forward, stopping only when Sawada checked him with a shoulder. Hey, no one said she had to be sensible in her appreciation of something that looked good.

And, ow. Kyoko's elbows were _bony._

Sawada was beginning to look more and more amused by the second, though he quickly stifled it at the sight of the rising ire on Hibari's face.

"It was nice to meet the two of you! I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi, Yoshi's older brother. Thank you for taking care of him."

Sawada followed _that_ statement up with a polite bow that she and Kyoko automatically returned, Kyoko's polite response to the words sounding a lot less awkward than hers. He straightened, offered them both a sweet smile and turned away to walk out the gates, tugging the delinquent prefect boss behind him.

Hana stared after the two of them, dazed.

"That just happened, right."

"Mmhmm," Kyoko answered, pressing a finger to her lips and staring around at all the moaning and crying boys that had been left behind.

"No, Kyoko, that couldn't have happened, right. A Sawada lookalike didn't just beat up a whole bunch of delinquents, _third year_ delinquents, as a part of a fighting competition with Hibari, win it, offer up a truce and drag him off to eat ice cream and hamburger steak, right?"

"Oh, but it did, Hana-chan," she said, beginning to look amused.

Hana stared back at her, horrified.

"No, Kyoko. This was a fever dream. Some kind of shared fever dream, it couldn't have been anything else. _Right?"_

"You're adorable, Hana-chan. Don't change." She replied, smiling at her fondly, before turning around and walking back into the building.

Hana squawked in protest and darted after her.

"Kyoko, where're you going, don't leave me behind with all these crying monkeys!"

"I thought it was a fever dream, Hana-chan?"

"That isn't funny, Kyoko! Where're we going?!"

"To find Kusakabe-san. We can't leave all those hurt boys out front, I think the school gets into enough trouble with the authorities when Hibari beats people up _outside_ school grounds. We don't need the police and ambulances turning up at Nami-chuu to find all those bodies here."

"…Kyoko, _they aren't dead yet_. You can't just call them bodies – that's flat out _scary_."

Kyoko shot her a bright smile. It made Hana shudder and look away.

"Yoshi-kun's brother seemed interesting, though. I wonder if they call him Tsuna, wouldn't that be funny? Tsuna and Yoshi."

"Kyoko, _no."_ Hana said desperately, because this was exactly how they'd become friends/acquaintances with Sawada Yoshi in the first place.

Kyoko had seen him, the ash-haired genius _hāfu_ delinquent from their class and freakin' _Yamamoto Takeshi_ chasing down and beating up some shady looking guys in black suits and shades one Sunday afternoon, when they'd met up to go shopping together. Needless to say, their plans had been edited and Hana had spent the day chasing after her friend who was chasing after Sawada and his gang in a fit of unapologetic curiosity. It had ending with her and Kyoko somehow becoming hostages of the yakuza family that Sawada had run afoul of and him and Kyoko becoming friends when they were rescued.

See? Friends/Acquaintances. He might have been Kyoko's friend, but he sure as hell wasn't _hers._ Damned trouble-attracting monkey. Kyoko got into enough trouble herself without someone else making it _worse._

X

 _The first time he sees him, the tiny wisp on a boy is sitting on top of someone else, bigger than him but not by much, using his knees to keep the older boy's arms pinned, and using his hands to hold the boy by his hair and mercilessly slam his head into the ground. Again, and again, and again. It's like the metronome Kyoya's mother has at home, moving to a set beat, and each tick is measured by the crack of the boy's head against the ground._

 _There's another tiny boy, looking much like the first, face bruised and crying in an irritating, high pitched tone that would have convinced Kyoya to walk away if it weren't for the way he was trying to pull the first boy off the one being pummelled into the ground._

" _Onii-chan, onii-chan, stop, stop, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorryyyyyy!"_

 _The repeated apologies seemed to do what pure physical strength didn't, because the boy's older brother finally let go of the hair in his grasp, leaving the other's boy's head to fall back to the ground with a dull thump. The boy still on the ground wasn't making any noise._

 _The lack of tears or screaming made Kyoya draw closer, curious. Because the sight of the tiny boy, holding his brother's chin up with bloodied fingers and staring at his bruises with a scowl on his tiny face somehow caught Kyoya by the heart and reeled him in before he could protest the movement._

" _Is he dead?" he asked curiously._

 _Both boys jerked, and the boy drew his younger brother behind him, glowering at Kyoya threateningly. It looked like a cute little kitten trying to snarl at him, and the sight made Kyoya smile, because even small predators were still predators._

 _And mother had said he wouldn't find more people like himself. He'd go back home and tell her she was wrong._

 _The first boy was staring at him, face strangely blank. When Kyoya glanced over his shoulder, the other boy looked just as blank. It was when their faces were both expressionless that Kyoya finally realised that they both looked exactly the same. Well, not…_ exactly. _Their hair colours were slightly different, one had darker brown hair than the other. Maybe the set of the eyes. But it was very little, they looked similar enough that Kyoya would have thought we was looking at reflections if they weren't both moving in completely different ways._

"… _I don't think he is," the first boy said after a moment. The second boy made a fearful sound, clutching at his brother's shirt, and Kyoya fought the urge to cringe._

 _An herbivore clinging to a carnivore, hoping to be defended. Father hadn't said_ that _could happen in life._

 _It took Kyoya a long moment to realise that the herbivore wasn't just clinging to the boy in front. He was actually scowling at Kyoya – teary-eyed, face purple and blue, and an oozing cut at the edge of his lips, but he was still trying to scowl at Kyoya, hiding behind the carnivore, but still defiant._

 _It made Kyoya's face light up with a bright smile. This was interesting! Like his father's stories, and his men!_

" _Sawada Tsuna," the carnivore said suddenly, ducking his head. Kyoya blinked at him, while the herbivore at the back quivered in place before also ducking and giving a short bow, a little deeper than the carnivore in front of him._

" _S-Sawada Yoshi," he said in a soft voice._

 _Kyoya shrugged, and ducked his head._

" _Hibari Kyoya. We should check if he's dead, my father said leaving dead people behind when you can get charged for it is a bad idea."_

 _Tsuna frowned at him, and then slowly nodded._

" _Yeah. I think that makes sense. Do you know how to check?"_

"… _I've seen my companion's father hold people's wrists to check. I don't know why, though."_

"… _there should be something beating."_

 _Both Kyoya and Tsuna turned to stare at Yoshi, who flushed, and looked down, fingers curling in the edge of his shirt._

" _I don't know why. Something tells me that something has to be beating in his wrist. That means he's not dead." He said defensively. Kyoya continued to stare at him, bemused, but Tsuna nodded._

" _Ok. That something always tells us things and its always right, right Yoshi?"_

" _H-hai…" Yoshi trailed away in a soft voice._

 _Kyoya turned to follow Tsuna back to the boy on the ground. Each of them lifted a hand, Tsuna watching to see where Kyoya was holding and trying the same. It took a while, but they finally_ did _manage to feel something beating in his wrist. They both booked back at Yoshi, Tsuna with a smile and Kyoya with raised eyebrows, feeling very impressed. He hadn't even known what to look for, and Yoshi had given them the answer immediately._

" _So, what do we do now?" Tsuna asked him, face screwed up in a serious expression. Kyoya frowned, trying to figure out what to do. He nodded, after a long moment of thought._

" _Let's go to a payphone. My companion's father should be able to do something about this,_ my _father always calls him when there's something like this going on."_

 _Tsuna looked suitably impressed. Yoshi just looked worried, still clinging to his brother. He wasn't crying anymore, though. And didn't look scared either. No, his eyes were watching Kyoya warily, still not completely willing to trust him._

 _Kyoya nodded to himself, smiling softly. A carnivore. Just like his brother. But a small one. A baby carnivore, acting like an herbivore so he didn't get eaten by something bigger. Tsuna was big, so was Kyoya, but neither of them were as big as Kyoya's father. That's why the baby carnivore, no, fake-herbivore, was hiding behind his brother. He wasn't ready to face Kyoya directly, not yet._

 _Tsuna seemed to understand what Kyoya was thinking, because he shot Kyoya a warning look, one arm pointedly keeping Yoshi behind him. The reaction made Kyoya laugh, because he knew, he_ knew _, he would have reacted the same way if he'd been in Tsuna's place._

" _Come on. We'll need to call quickly, it's getting dark and the old man will get busy soon."_

 _Tsuna watched him, eyes looking oddly purple in the half-light, before nodding just once. He followed Kyoya without any hesitation, though._

 _Tetsu's father was thankfully willing to come to check on the boy, and to anonymously enter him into a hospital so no one found out that Tsuna, Yoshi or Kyoya had been involved. He_ did _stare all three of them down with a hard expression, eyes lingering on Yoshi's bruised, bleeding face and the unapologetic set of Tsuna's shoulders before treating all of them to a soft smile._

" _Never do this again, Sawada-kun. And Young Master, it's far too early for you to be calling me to deal with any bodies you leave behind." He said severely, making both the Sawada brothers wince, while Kyoya looked away, not quite willing to duck his head before someone subordinate to his father. Even if Kusakabe-san was nice. He kept bringing Tetsu to the main house, and always brought them nice things to eat too._

" _Will they find out who hurt Minoru-san?" Yoshi asked, voice shaking._

 _Tsuna groaned, and Kyoya peered at him curiously, but Kusakabe's expression seemed to get strangely closed off._

" _I doubt it, Sawada-kun. The doctors doubted whether that boy would be waking up any time soon."_

 _Kyoya nodded suitably impressed, while Tsuna raised a shoulder in his direction, face blank. Yoshi, though, seemed to dissolve into tears all over again, clinging to his brother's shirt. It took Kyoya a few seconds to understand what exactly it was that Yoshi was whispering again and again._

" _I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's my fault. If Minoru didn't hit me, nii-chan wouldn't have to-"_

" _Yoshi." Tsuna cut in to the mumbling, tugging his brother forward and giving him a tight hug._

" _Yoshi, it's not your fault. He's the one who followed you back and tried to beat you up."_

 _Kusakabe's brows rose at that, while Kyoya sneered. Weakling, preying on someone who couldn't fight back yet. His father always said that herbivores were the worst sort, fighting amongst themselves and bleeding each other dry because they couldn't get any stronger. Now Kyoya actually understood what he meant._

" _But nii-chan!"_

" _No, Yoshi. He's older than us. Bigger than us. If all he wanted to do was take the money that Mama gave us, he could have taken it and left you alone. Instead, he followed you back when I wasn't around and beat you up just because he could."_

 _Kyoya listened with slowly widening eyes, a strange feeling of excitement coursing through his veins when he noticed the hard look on Tsuna's face. His lips pulled back in a snarl that had Kusakabe-san making an alarmed noise, stepping back, but it only made Kyoya want to step_ closer.

" _No one has any right to complain if all I did was beat him back."_

"… _I'm still moving, nii-chan." Yoshi said in a small voice._

 _The passive defence of the boy who had beaten Yoshi up had Kyoya snarling just as much as Tsuna, much to Yoshi's surprise._

" _If what your brother is saying is right, and I know it is, the only reason you're moving is because your brother found you before that boy made sure that you_ weren't. _Stop saying sorry. It isn't your fault." Kyoya snapped, voice unyielding. It made Yoshi duck his head fearfully, but he slowly nodded. The silent acceptance made Tsuna stare at him with a strange look on his face before he smiled tightly._

" _Thank you. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come." He said uncomfortably._

" _Probably killed him," Kyoya returned blandly._

 _Tsuna blinked, surprised, and then gave a soft laugh, his face lighting up with a smile that was as bright as the sky shining through a heavy bank of clouds, setting the entire horizon aglow._

" _You're probably right about that," he said._

 _Yoshi made a pained noise, and reached out the catch both of them by their sleeves. When they both turned to look at him, they were faced with a thunderous pout, lower lip quivering and eyes big and wet. Both Tsuna and Kyoya choked, shaking in the face of Yoshi's anger - Tsuna because it was his brother and he'd_ never _seen Yoshi this angry, and Kyoya because... because…_

 _He was so cute, oh, oh, like a kitten fluffing up and trying to bite at his toes, or a little porcupine, its spines still too soft to hurt anyone but_ trying anyway. _He couldn't look away from the sight, face going red._

" _Never. Try. To. Kill. Anyone. Again. You can beat them up if you have to, hurt people if they hurt you, but_ don't try to kill anyone. EVER."

 _They both nodded back, wide-eyed._

 _An odd sound coming from behind them had all of them looking back to see Kusakabe-san staring at all of them, a pained look on his face. Kyoya tilted his head and stared up at him, because he'd_ never _seen Kusakabe-san look quite like that before._

" _Young Master, I think it's past time that we get you home. The Master and Mistress must be worried. Let's drop off Sawada-kun and Sawada-kun after that, ok?" he asked, smiling, but Kyoya could see his face spasming, for some reason._

 _Yoshi nodded, looking contrite, and they slowly started walking back to where Kusakabe had parked his car._

 _When they finally reached his house, Kusakabe driving them in so Kyoya could get out in front of the engawa bordering the house, both Tsuna and Yoshi scrambled out after him, ignoring the way Kusakabe was trying to get them back in the car._

" _Your home is beautiful," Yoshi whispered, staring up. Kyoya shrugged uncomfortably. This was the only place he'd known, after all. He couldn't decide if it was beautiful or not when he didn't have anything to compare it to._

 _Tsuna nudged him with a shoulder, smiling softly at the dirty look Kyoya shot him._

" _Mama says that our house is a modern Western house, it doesn't look like this. This is really pretty, Kyoya," he said, and Kyoya nodded back slowly, willing to accept that._

" _I've…I've never seen a Western house." He said haltingly. Yoshi spun to face him, wide eyed and smiling sweetly, while Tsuna beamed at him._

" _Come drop us off with Kusakabe-san! He can bring you back here, right?" Tsuna offered, his brother nodding eagerly beside him._

 _Kyoya nodded again, somehow feeling warm inside his chest. He looked back when Kusakabe made another strange sound. The old man had his face pressed into his hands._

"… _Are you ok, Kusakabe-san?" Yoshi asked worriedly._

" _I'm fine, Sawada-kun, thank you for asking." He replied, voice muffled by his hand._

" _Take us to Tsuna and Yoshi's house, Kusakabe-san." Kyoya demanded impatiently, when the older man made no move to get back into the car. After a long moment, he nodded, still looking pained, but he didn't hesitate to turn the car around and drive off once they were all inside._

 _When the three of them hopped off into the large house that Tsuna had directed them towards, Kyoya stared up at it through the grill of the gate. It looked so tall, and bright with colours in a way that his house wasn't. He thought this house was pretty too, thought he didn't say it. He didn't think hr needed to, because Yoshi was smiling at him again, lips curled ever so slightly._

 _When he waved goodbye to Kusakabe and followed the brothers in, he could have sworn that he heard the man grumbling about how he 'didn't want them spending any more time than necessary together' and how 'the young master was warped enough on his own, without adding more influences', and how 'the Mistress would hear about this', neither of which made much sense, so he let it go, tugging off his shoes in the genkan and trading them for a big pair of slippers that weren't anywhere near his size. Both the brothers steadied him immediately, giggling about how they'd ask their mother to buy a pair of slippers that would fit him too._

 _He followed them, feeling confused and out of place, especially since Tsuna didn't feel much like a carnivore anymore. But there were fingers tightly wound in his sleeves on either side, so he allowed himself to be tugged along, bowing and introducing himself politely when the brothers pulled to a stop in front of their mother._

 _When she offered to make him his favourite dish just because he brought her sons home, well. Who was he to say no?_

X

"Sawada-dono- _Sawada-dono-"_

Yoshi somehow managed to find the presence of mind to pull himself out of the armchair. The boy – pale haired, pale faced, blue eyed and panting for breath, covered in slash marks and clothes nearly in shreds – stumbled forward in his direction, and he reached out on instinct, steadying him with both hands.

"Are you okay?" he asked, rather redundantly in retrospect. He looked at Gokudera and Yamamoto, feeling a little helpless. What the hell? Who was this? And why the heck was he calling Yoshi _Sawada-dono?_

Gokudera cringed, looking like he wanted nothing more than to drag the bleeding wreck away from Yoshi's person, but he nodded gruffly and went inside to find some medical supplies. They'd all been relaxing by the inflatable pool that Bianchi had left behind at the Sawada Residence at some point. His mother and the kids were all out, and Reborn… was who knew where, the Arcobaleno liked to take time off for himself every once in a while.

Yoshi really wished he hadn't chosen to disappear _today_ of all days, though. He tried to tug the stranger towards the armchairs, hoping to get him off his feet, but the boy waved off Yamamoto and Yoshi's hands, instead tugging a rectangular black box from somewhere within his shredded jacket.

"This- Thy father wishest and maintaineth that I bring these to thine hand, Sawada-dono-" he said faintly.

Yoshi… twitched, and eyed the box like it had managed to mutate into a handful of vipers.

"Haha, you sure do have an interesting way of speaking," Yamamoto said cheerily, though his eyes were dark. And the hand he'd set between the boy's shoulders was steady.

"And what, exactly, did my father decide to send me that drew enough attention to wound its messenger to this extent?" Yoshi asked, voice hard. The boy looked up at him, still wheezing for breath, but his eyes had gone wide.

"VOIIIIIII! Fun answer, that. Hand the box over, brat, it doesn't belong to… you…" the words had started out loud and harsh, but they'd petered away to something that sounded a lot like shock by the end of it.

Yoshi and Yamamoto both jerked around, shoving the wounded stranger behind them instinctively. And stared up at the long haired, leather-clad foreigner who'd appeared on the edge of the roof of the Sawada Household. Yoshi actually felt the way Yamamoto went still, eyes focused on the sword strapped to the white haired man's left hand.

There was a sinking feeling in his gut. Yoshi wanted to throw the box on the ground and jump on it till whatever was inside got crushed. Damn it, he _knew_ this was going to happen!

"Juudaime!" Gokudera called, coming out, "I brought some- _Holy fuck!"_

He jerked back inside the moment he noticed the stranger up on the roof. Or, at least, he jerked back in the first few steps before Tsuna-nii stopped him with a hand to his back.

"Sqaulo? Is that you?" he called out, sounding surprised.

The stranger on the roof, Squalo, kept staring at Yoshi, looking a little disturbed. The stare had Yamamoto scowling and stepping in front of Yoshi, just to break the line of sight.

It seemed to make the man come back to himself, and he crouched down right there, on the edge of the roof.

"What the fuck, Sawada. I knew you had a brother, but you didn't fucking say he was your fucking _twin,"_ he said incredulously.

Yoshi coughed, trying to hide a grin at how disturbed the man was starting to look.

"And to top it off, he looks fucking _cute._ What the fuck."

"Quit swearing so much, Rapunzel, you'll scar the kids," Tsuna said, absolutely bland, as he shoved a gaping Gokudera out.

"Aniki!" he protested, when Tsuna stepped out past him. That had Squalo choking again, though he was quickly starting to go from disturbed to disturbingly amused.

"Aniki? Really?" he asked, grinning.

Gokudera went red, and even Yamamoto went a bit pink, since he hadn't hesitate to take up that address either. Though he _did_ alternate it with Yoshi's usual turn of phrase, enough that 'aniki' didn't come up as much.

"Yes, aniki. Got a problem with that?" Tsuna asked cheerfully, smiling brightly up at Sqaulo and simultaneously throwing an arm around Gokudera's shoulders. Poor Gokudera – he actually squeaked and dropped the first aid kit, flushing even redder than before.

"…okay, now that is just precious," Squalo said, smirking and gesturing towards Gokudera with a wave of the sword bound to his hand. Tsuna beamed back at him, jostling the increasingly flustered teen tucked to his side.

"Isn't he just? Yoshi somehow managed to find the cutest set of younger brothers for me to play with."

"Aniki!" Gokudera yelped, finally unable to bear the two-pronged onslaught.

Yoshi covered his mouth with both hands, trying his level best not to let the giggles out. About the only thing that helped him control himself was the fact that the first stranger had gone stiff behind him. He looked over his shoulder, worried when he saw how much paler the boy had gotten.

"Tsuna-dono," he said faintly. Tsuna's gaze shot towards them immediately, the fond smile staying on his face, but eyes abruptly went cold.

"Basil-kun," he replied pleasantly. The boy, Basil, whimpered and stumbled backwards.

"Tsuna-nii!" Yoshi snapped, turning around to catch the boy by his shoulder before he could bolt and end up hurting himself any worse.

"Family business, Yoshi. You know how it is," Tsuna returned, letting go of Gokudera, who'd gone still, the flush subsiding from his face.

Squalo was still up on the roof, a wide smirk still firmly in place.

"Family business or not, I'm not letting you hurt anyone who's come as a messenger to _me,"_ Yoshi said, voice going hard. Tsuna drew to a stop beside him, waving Yamamoto away with a pointed glance.

"Do you even know what the message he's brought to you _is?"_ he asked, lips quirked just enough at the edges to seem like a smile. Yoshi shot him a chiding look, and the facsimile of a smile immediately disappeared.

It left Tsuna looking absolutely cold. The expression was terribly familiar – Yoshi had certainly seen enough of it before Tsuna had learnt how to hide away the harder edges of himself. Memories of being nine and watching his twin laughing wildly, looking half-mad while evading the downward arc of Kyoya-san's tonfa, loomed up from the deep before Yoshi shoved them back down where they belonged.

"Basil. Basil-san. You have to answer me. What is in the box?" he asked urgently, knowing that Tsuna would be patient for only so long before he decided to take matters into his own hands. And he didn't need to see Gokudera and Yamamoto's regard for his brother plummet. Gokudera had managed to tuck away his unease about Tsuna being the 'Cloud Fist' of the Varia, and Yamamoto hadn't studied in the same schools as them while growing up – they _didn't know_ how bad Tsuna could get if he was angry.

And he was. He _was._ Yoshi had nearly seen the rage crystallise in his eyes before Tsuna had tucked it away beneath a smile.

 _Damn it, baka-oyaji, what'd you do now?_ He thought to himself, exasperated, staring down at Basil entreatingly.

Basil was glancing between the two of them, wide eyed, but he subsided when Yoshi cleared his throat.

"These… Iemitsu-dono wishest that-"

"Quit that, Basil. I already taught you how to speak in Modern Japanese, don't go back to the stuff dad taught you. The old man just had a laugh at your expense and you _know_ it."

Yoshi groaned, and reached out to shove at Tsuna' shoulder. Tsuna, for his part, budged about as much as a mountain would, on being shoved by puny mortal arms. Basil looked down at the ground, looking so sad that Yoshi really couldn't help himself when he wrapped the boy up in a hug. Basil stiffened in the circle of his arms with a squeak, but he didn't make any move to pull away.

It was Tsuna's turn to groan, and he scrubbed at the back of his head with a pained look on his face.

" _Yoshi."_

" _No,_ Tsuna-nii. You hurt him. _Dad_ hurt him. That means mom and I get to take care of him until he feels better."

Squalo burst into sudden laughter behind them, and Yoshi looked over his shoulder to stare as the swordsman actually fell off the edge of the roof, still cackling.

" _Oh,_ fuck, _ow_. Tsuna, the two of you're just as bad as each other – and you can't ignore _him_!"

Tsuna shot the older man a wary look, the coldness slowly melting off his features. Yoshi slumped into Basil with relief, making the boy squeak again.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tsuna was asking, and Squalo pushed himself up with another snicker.

"VOI, you know _exactly_ what that means. Boss is going to laugh his ass off when I tell him about this…"

" _Squalo,"_ the swordsman's name left his brother's lips in a whine that had Yoshi bursting into irrepressible giggles, muffling them in Basil's hair. The sound made Tsuna turn around with the most sullen expression that Yoshi had seen on his face in a while – he didn't think he'd seen anything near as petulant on his brother's face since the last time their father had carted Tsuna back to Palermo earlier than planned.

For his part, Basil had finally loosened up, though he'd bunched his hands in the front of Yoshi's tee, seemingly too shy to actually hug back. Yoshi patted him comfortingly on the back and pulled away, turning a pleading look on his brother.

The bitch-face doubled in intensity. Squalo choked, doubling up in breathless hilarity, while Gokudera went red all over again. Yamamoto's face lit up with a dazzling grin, looking back and forth between the Sawada brothers with apparent glee.

"Yoshi, if you say _one word-"_

"Can we please keep him, Tsuna-nii?"

Tsuna's shoulders slumped and he tilted his head back, looking pained.

"Okay, yes. _Stop looking at me like that."_

"Yay!"

It was only later, once the excitement died down and Yoshi and Tsuna had both procured snacks for everyone at home that he managed to sit down with the box. They were all seated around the kitchen, even Basil, who was still looking subdued, sitting quietly between Yamamoto and Gokudera. Squalo was leaning against a counter, nursing a mug of the expresso blend that Reborn tended to ensure that Yoshi kept on hand. He'd detached the sword from his arm and sheathed it safely, and was pointedly ignoring all the speculative looks Yamamoto was shooting in his direction.

Tsuna was seated quietly beside him, arms folded and frowning down at the box that Yoshi had placed in front of himself.

"…well? Aren't you going to open it?" Yamamoto asked, once more than sixty seconds had passed by. Predictably, this comment was met with a snarl from Gokudera's side, but he quickly subsided when Tsuna shot him a warning look.

"…Okay. Well, here goes nothing." Yoshi mumbled, and tugged the lid of the box off. He didn't need more than a glimpse of the seven half rings arranged in a circle within the box before he slammed the box shut again, breath catching in his throat.

Seconds of silence slipped past, and he stared down at the box, knuckles going white where his fingers were still gripping its lid.

"Yoshi," Tsuna murmured, sounding exasperated.

"No. _No_ , Tsuna-nii. I _told him._ I fucking told the old man too. To. His. Face."

Squalo made an interested sound, eyes focusing on him sharply.

"So you already knew this was coming, did you."

"No! Because it wasn't _supposed_ to be coming! I told my father that I don't even have an iota of interest in succeeding the family. Even if the first two heirs to the Vongola passed away, Don Nono's two younger sons are both alive and well – let _them_ squabble over the heirship, damn it."

Squalo's brows slowly rose, and he eyed Yoshi curiously over the rim of his mug. Tsuna sighed, and collapsed back in his seat, letting his head hang loose over the back of the chair.

"I had a feeling this was going to happen. That… _kuso-oyaji_ of ours has been snooping around the compound too often, that's why I asked Boss for permission to come home for a while. God damn it."

"…if dad's selected me, then who's the Don's selected candidate?" Yoshi asked suddenly, his intuition suddenly pinging off.

Squalo gave a rude snort, and knocked back the last of his coffee. The action made Tsuna lurch out of his chair, looking horrified.

"The Don wouldn't- Not _Massimo_ for fuck's sake!" he snapped.

"Well, apparently he and your brother at the only legitimate heirs available. VOOOOOIIIIII, don't give me that look, brat. I was about as pissed as you are now when the news came in."

"Then why were _you_ chasing Basil?" Yoshi cut in, curious.

Squalo shot him a surprised look that had him sighing painfully.

"You're clearly Xanxus' Guardian, right? If you're _his_ Guardian, why were you the one to chase the ring bearer?" he asked again, Squalo sneered at him, and turned to reach for the coffee pot, already going about fixing a second mug for himself.

"Because Massimo _still_ doesn't have a whole damned complement of Guardians. The fuckwit. The only Guardians he has are a Sun and Mist pair of 'identical' twins – which is fucking insane, they're about as identical as me and Yoshi if they have different Flame alignments – and, anyway, they aren't even proper fucking Guardians-" Tsuna broke off with a hiss at the loaded look Squalo shot him, clearly ordering him to shut up.

Yoshi turned the problem over thoughtfully, and finally nodded to himself. He pushed himself out of the chair, hand still locked around the box in his hand, and ignoring the questioning look his brother shot at him. He pulled short in front of Squalo, who surveyed him with raised eyebrows, beginning to look just a little bit amused all over again.

"You're kinda adorable, Princess. I guess now I know why the brat's so hung up on you."

"Squalo!" Tsuna snarled, but Yoshi rolled his eyes and nudged his brother back with his shoulder.

"Shush, you. He's my big brother, of course he'd worry about me. Mom fed him all these stories about how there were complications during our birth and how I nearly didn't make it out, when we were younger. It made him hover over me way too much once he started understanding that those complications meant I might never have existed. I don't begrudge him his overprotectiveness."

"Juudaime," Gokudera whispered, sounded horrified. Tsuna made a pained sound and wrapped Yoshi up in a bear hug from the back. Well used to the treatment, and honestly finding the reactions to his confession more than a little amusing, he lifted both arms, offering the box laying in his palms to the swordsman standing before him.

Squalo didn't looked even a little moved by the tale, not that Yoshi expected him to feel anything. About the only reason his friends reacted was because they were his friends, and Tsuna was his big brother – older by nearly five hours and born the day before him.

But he did lift the box gently, and after he'd secured it, softly patted Yoshi on the head.

"Quit telling that story to people from now on, kid. You'll make your big cry baby of a brother sob a river of tears and snot."

"I'm _not a cry baby,"_ Tsuna protested, but he made no move to let Yoshi go either. Squalo snorted, and ruffled Tsuna's hair none-too-gently.

"Baby. Do you want me to carry a message back to Boss for you?"

"No, He already knows anything I have to say. Watch out for my father and any members of the CEDEF, Squalo. I want those rings to reach Boss safely."

"Obviously. VOI, who the fuck do you think you're talking to, brat."

When Tsuna finally pulled his face away from Yoshi's shoulders, scrubbing at his eyes, it was to offer the older man a vicious grin.

"Nothing wrong in wishing an old man luck, is there."

"You _wish_ you were as old as me, shrimp. I'll see you when you get back."

And that was that. Basil didn't seem too pleased to see the rings he had nearly given his life to protect being freely offered to the 'enemy', so to speak, but he didn't complain too much. He kept staring at Yoshi as though he'd hung the sun, moon and stars in the sky, though. It made both Gokudera and Tsuna increasingly uncomfortable, while Yamamoto continued to be horribly amused at his friend's ridiculous life.

X

The shit didn't hit the fan till Reborn returned to the house, two days later, with Dino in tow and a box filled with what were apparently the _real_ half-rings. The earlier ones being fakes.

Yoshi was caught between feeling horribly embarrassed that he hadn't been able to make out and close to committing hara-kiri just to make sure he never had to meet his brother's Boss in person, because he'd _sent the man fakes._

(Tsuna assured him his Boss hadn't been angry at Yoshi, though. It wasn't like _he_ had been the one to switch the rings out for fakes.)

X

" _He's so cute!" Lussuria cooed, hands covering his face and playing peek-a-boo with the tiny child curled up on the Boss' couch. The child, Tsuna, was giggling happily, reaching out and tugging at Lussuria's fingers, making the man wriggle with glee at the adorableness of their newest member._

 _Xanxus made a disgusted sound and ducked his head into the nest his arms made on his desk, sounding absolutely exhausted._

" _The meeting didn't go well, then?" Squalo asked, expression carefully blank._

 _The Boss made a rude sound, face still hidden away, and Squalo found himself trading glances with Levi, who was still hovering by the door, shoulders tense._

" _Oh, that old man. He doesn't understand matters of the heart," Lussuria scoffed, and then smiled sweetly down at Tsuna, playfully tugging his arms up and down. "Isn't that right, little Tsuna?"_

" _It is," Tsuna said, much to everyone's collective surprise. Lussuria stilled, his larger hands still carefully curled around the boy's tiny fists._

" _The kid understands Italian?" Levi asked, after a beat._

" _No," Squalo answered, still a little bemused by that little fact. He didn't think Guardian bonds were supposed to work quite this way; memories and language centres of the brain certainly weren't documented as being affected in any way by Soul Flames. Then again, it wasn't often that such young children became guardians to adult Skies._

 _Xanxus still looked tired, when he straightened in his seat._

" _The Don was furious," he said, and Squalo carefully controlled the urge to wince._

 _Xanxus oscillated back and forth between the formal and informal when talking about Timoteo Vongola, and Squalo had realized years ago that Xanxus switched over to more impersonal terms of address whenever the old man disappointed him in some way. He'd still been calling Don Nono father that morning, before Sawada and his brat had come into the picture._

" _And why, pray tell, was Don Nono so enraged?" Lussuria asked mildly, and_ that _actually made both Squalo and Levi wince._

" _Because the brat wasn't meant to be my Guardian, obviously. And I'm guessing they couldn't break the bond, or else he'd already be attached to either Frederico or Enrico."_

 _Squalo distantly noted that Xanxus didn't even seem particularly angry at that thought. Levi had lurched sideways, shoulder slamming into the door jamb rather uncomfortably, and Lussuria's lips had quirked into a faint and utterly terrifying smile._

 _That the Boss could talk of his fucking Father breaking a Guardian bond without batting an eyelid…_

" _They couldn't. My dad won't let them, anyway," Tsuna said, his boyishly high voice sounding unnaturally loud in the aftermath of Xanxus' words. Xanxus made a questioning sound, and Tsuna shrugged, tugging his hands away from Lussuria's grasp, jumping down to the ground and walking up to the Boss' desk._

" _They took me away from my brother. I wasn't going to let them take me away from you too." He said, peering up at Xanxus with a serious expression on his face._

" _Brother?" Levi asked, after a false start, still clearly reeling after the thought that the Don might have found a way to break_ their _Guardian bonds if he'd disapproved of any of the Boss' choices of Guardians, back when they'd first been made._

 _Tsuna shrugged at him, face losing the façade of age that his unexpected seriousness had created._

" _My younger brother. When he showed our parents his flames, Dad got jii-san to come visit us. They almost hurt Yoshi, but I stopped them. Then dad said that I had to come with him here so that_ I _wouldn't hurt him."_

 _Squalo choked, and Levi made a wounded sound, hands clutching at the door jamb like a lifeline. Lussuria half-rose from the couch, looking alarmed, but all of them went still when a crunching sounded echoed through the room._

 _Boss' hands had managed to crush the edge of his desk._

" _What colour were your brother's flames?" he asked, voice hard._

 _Tsuna smiled up at him sweetly._

" _They were like yours. They didn't burn as much, but they were so warm. Yoshi's really sweet and nice, and his flames always feel really happy. Like sunshine!" he chirped._

 _Lussuria collapsed back into the couch, and Levi backed out of the room, looking sick. He rushed off with a whirl of his coat. Squalo might have gone after him, to make sure he didn't fucking puke in the fucking corridor, but it was all he could do to stay right where he was, leaning against a wall making sure he didn't slip down._

"…Younger _brother." Lussuria said faintly, once he'd brought himself under control. Tsuna nodded at him, still smiling sweetly, and Xanxus' hands slammed down on his desk. All of them turned to look at him, when he slowly pushed himself out of his armchair, face pale with anger, nausea or some horrific mix of the two._

 _Younger brother, Squalo reminded himself. Lussuria would know more, since he'd actually studied the side effects and mental impact of a Guardian bond – any trained medical personnel with a Sun Flame alignment were expected to know those effects – but even without the training Squalo knew that bonding at such a young age was considered dangerous, especially between children. Phrases like 'unhealthy co-dependency', 'emotional abuse' and 'social regression' danced through his head, but even those weren't enough to justify the fact that his fellow Guardian had been ripped away from the Sky that he had originally been bonded to. By his father and the Don they were all apparently answering to._

 _Tsuna seemed confused, and he looked up at Xanxus when the older man rounded his desk, coming to a stop in front of him._

"… _do I have to leave you too?" he asked, voice painfully young. Squalo watched with a sick feeling in his gut as Xanxus crouched down in front of the child._

" _No. Never. The only way you're leaving me is if I die first, brat. Yoshi might be your brother, but you're mine now, and I don't let go of things that belong to me easily."_

 _Tsuna cheered, and threw his tiny arms around the Boss' neck, hugging him tightly._

" _Yoshi would like you," he said brightly, even as the Boss put a careful hand on his back, not quite hugging him but not pushing him away either. "He likes people who take care of others. And I know you'll take care of me. He'd like that."_

" _He won't be angry?" Squalo found himself asking, nodding to Levi when he returned, still looking a little green._

 _Tsuna shot a surprisingly contemptuous look at him, the expression looking nearly alien on his tiny face._

" _Of course not. It's_ Yoshi."

 _The Boss gave a laugh that sounded uncomfortably watery._

" _And that's enough, is it?"_

" _Un!" Tsuna declared cheerfully. "He told me to take care of myself over here, because dad is silly and Yoshi didn't like jii-san at all. He'll be happy that I'm with you now."_

 _The words made Xanxus snort with laughter, clearly entertained by the thought that, somewhere in Japan, there was a little boy who apparently disapproved of Don Nono enough to tell his older brother to be wary of him._

" _He really doesn't seem too much like a Cloud," Levi said later, once they'd all left the Boss' office. Tsuna had remained behind, and the Boss seemed content enough with the arrangement, so none of them had protested._

" _Doesn't he? He's certainly hovering around the Boss like a fluffy little Cloud," Squalo countered snidely._

 _It made Levi growl back at him, still not completely over the fact that he couldn't quite squabble with a little boy over how much time he was spending with the Boss. Not only would Tsuna not understand why Levi was angry, it would make their subordinates howl with laughter._

" _Not only that. Didn't you hear what he said, back there?"_

" _VOI, I was too busy keeping an eye on Levi to make sure he didn't fucking upchuck over Boss' carpets."_

" _Why you-"_

" _That little boy," Lussuria broke off to shove Squalo and Levi apart, one hand on each of their faces. "That little boy said that he stopped his father and Don Nono from hurting his brother. Who would have been his_ Sky _at that point. And he said that he would stop them from separating him from Boss."_

" _So?" Levi snapped, shoving Lussuria's hand away. "Any of us would have said and done the same."_

" _Not at that age. And not with nearly as much self-assurance. From the sound of it, the only reason he suffered the separation from his brother is because he'd been warned that his continued presence at his brother's side would only be detrimental to the brother. Which implied that, if Tsuna were the one being hurt, he wouldn't care enough to leave his brother behind, and certainly not because an outsider told him to. And that the only reason he did leave is because his brother ordered him to. That kind of unquestionable dedication and mental strength in the face of two adult Sky Flame users can't be anything but a Cloud Alignment."_

" _Clouds are supposed to be distant, aren't they?" Levi countered. Squalo watched the back and forth silently, interested in spite of himself._

" _Not necessarily. We tend to get the distant ones in the Varia because they're better suited to wetwork. I've known plenty of Clouds that are family oriented and veritable social butterflies."_

"… _I sense a 'but' somewhere in there," Squalo said blandly, beginning to smirk._

 _Lussuria grinned back at him, looking unholily amused._

" _But they were all monsters if anyone took them for granted. Most of them had the kind of fanatical following that even Sky Flame users don't get, and they never gave them the time of day. None of them liked being told what to do, and they only paid attention to the people they decided were worthy of their loyalty. If I'm reading that little boy right, he's already a little broken by his separation from his brother – and he probably has very little interest in anything his father or the Don say or do right now."_

" _Because they both betrayed his trust?" Levi asked, looking a little amused. Squalo snorted, and turned to keep walking._

" _No. Because they made him do something he didn't want to do." He said, making both his fellow guardians chortle with laughter._

X

"What do you mean, 'don't want them'?!"

Dino coughed into his fist, letting his gaze slip sideways to land on Reborn. Surprisingly enough, his old tutor looked completely expressionless – and therefore, utterly uninterested in sharing his opinion with anyone present in the room. He was seated atop the older Sawada twin, who was leaning against a wall and looking just as blank as the Arcobaleno balanced on his head, and if Dino was reading the set of his tiny shoulders correctly, Reborn seemed to be uncomfortably okay with the direction in which the discussion was going.

If it could even be called a discussion at this point.

Tsuna's younger brother was standing with his arms folded in the centre of the room, a scowl on his face, and looking about as defiant as Dino _knew_ his older brother could be when the situation called for it. Which was nearly all the time - for all that Tsuna seemed to be complexly loyal to his Boss, he had a well-deserved reputation of being a loose cannon. It made Dino horribly amused, especially when he made use of that personality trait to drag the Varia's Cloud off on coffee dates and escapades across the country. Or the world, if he could get away with it. He was allowed to pamper younger brothers, after all.

And both the Sawada brothers were his brothers in shared misery, if not blood. Yoshi was a full time student of Reborn's now, after all. And Dino'd met Tsuna more than once when _he'd_ still been getting tutored by Reborn. The younger boy had been dragged into his lessons far too often because Reborn had decided he could use an education with some hard hits too. Dino had been initially disturbed, since Reborn didn't seem the kind to take people under his wing out of the niceness of his heart.

He'd calmed down when he realized that it was some strange kind of revenge against Don Timoteo's _consigliere._ He wouldn't be surprised if the Arcobaleno had taken Yoshi as a student for the same reasons – for all that he'd been taking assignments and requests from the Vongola, Dino knew that Reborn and Don Timoteo had a more precarious relationship than they were willing to broadcast outside a select set of people.

"It means exactly what I'm saying, dad. I don't want the rings. I certainly never signed on to be the heir of the Vongola Family. You can't blindly assume that I want to be a part of the Family just because _you_ are." Yoshi snapped, voice hard. Iemistu looked like he'd been slapped, while more than one person silently watching the fallout between father and son winced. Dino wasn't among them.

He'd expected this reaction, after all. If nothing else, he'd suspected that Yoshi's loyalty to his brother would have ensured that he'd decline the rings – there was no way he'd fight his brother over something he'd never wanted in the first place.

"But you've been-"

"But nothing. Just because Reborn-san was kind enough to tutor me doesn't mean I'm obliged to become a member of a mafia Family. And I'm sure as hell not the best possible heir. The Family's got two other options, and they're _both_ the current Don's sons. Why the heck do I have to get involved when I don't want to?"

"Don't say 'because I said so', oyaji, that's about as dumb a reason as anyone can come up with. Act your age." Tsuna bit out suddenly, his voice cutting through the tension like a knife.

Iemitsu sent his older son a hard look before jerking his gaze back to the younger.

"Yoshi, I'm afraid Tsuna and you have been a part of this Family since your birth. We've discussed it, Timoteo and I, and whatever you might think, you _are_ the best possible heir." He said, voice tight. Yoshi scoffed, unimpressed.

"What, so we're Vongola by blood? I'm pretty sure _granddad_ wouldn't agree to that, if he were still around. Weren't _you_ the first member of the Sawada family to go hunting for the Vongola? Even if we're related to the first Don, he retired to Japan because he _didn't want to be a part of the Mafia any more._ How much less connected to the mafia can you get? The only person in the family who should have necessitated our being beholden to the Vongola was a deserter himself!" Yoshi snapped.

This time, Dino found himself choking with damn near everyone in the room. Tsuna looked viciously delighted, as proud as can be, while his brother's friends looked very close to either keeling over or passing out. Well, one of them did, while the other looked inappropriately amused at the turn of events. Poor Basil looked faint, crouching as close to Tsuna as he could get without being too obvious.

"You have no right to speak about your grandfather like that-" Iemitsu was blustering, while Yoshi rolled his eyes and waved the comment aside.

"If Reborn's lessons are anything to go by, Ieyasu-san would probably agree with me."

"Your brother-"

" _Don't drag him into this, dad_."

"He's a member of the Varia! He's probably the one who convinced you to give up your rightful inheritance!" Iemitsu snarled, sounding unnervingly helpless and enraged. Dino breathed in sharply, stepping forward to get involved because if anything could make things get out of hand, _that was it_ , but he stopped at a sudden spike of intent from Reborn. Clearly, he didn't want Dino getting involved yet.

And it didn't seem like he had to, anyway. Tsuna had darted forward to get an arm around his brother's shoulders and hold it back, because Yoshi looked an inch from throwing a punch at their father's face.

"You-you- _how dare you._ Dad, he loves me more than anything else, how could you even think that, let alone say it!" he roared, eyes going incandescent and making Dino's breath catch in his chest.

The sheer purity of the Sky Flames being released from his younger brother made his heart beat faster, the Harmony singing in his veins and demanding that he help defend the younger Sky from the interloper in their midst. It actually took a few seconds to wrestle his senses back under his control, and when the lust to fight had cleared, it was to find that nearly every other person in the room – namely Yoshi's Storm and Rain Guardians, Basil, and the children that had rushed back from the kitchen all looked as murderous as he'd felt a moment ago.

The arm that Tsuna had wrapped around Yoshi's shoulders, his eyes and the hand clenched at his side all glimmered a dark purple for a split second before the flames faded out.

Iemitsu actually looked pained. Dino nearly pitied him – the man clearly meant well, but he seemed to be saying all the wrong things.

"But Yoshi-" the older Sawada whispered, breaking off when Dino finally got a hand around his shoulder.

"Are you conspiring against the current headship, Sawada?" he asked blandly, directing the question at Tsuna.

Tsuna shot an exasperated look at him.

"Even if I say I'm not, Dino, the old man and my dumb dad aren't exactly going to accept it." He said, irate. Yoshi quivered impatiently in his grasp.

"That's crazy. Why would you conspire against anyone, Tsuna-nii?" he demanded. Tsuna gave a tired laugh and dropped his head onto the younger brother's shoulder.

"Well, the current headship wants _you_ as the next heir. You're not agreeing to be the heir, and I don't want you anywhere near the Mafia, so clearly that means I'm conspiring, right?"

Iemitsu made a choked sound, and tried to get away from vice around his shoulder, but Dino held tight. Even if he was older and the Vongola's _consigliere_ , Don Timoteo had asked Dino to get involved as an unbiased party if necessary. And this clearly called for involvement on his part.

"Sawada. Do you or do you not accept the Vongola rings?" Dino asked, directing this question at Yoshi.

Yoshi stared him down, eyes still glowing amber-gold, and utterly unflinching in his response.

"I do not."

"Do I get to choose whom the rings go to if I don't accept them?" he asked, in the moment after his father caved in Dino's grasp.

Dino gave a short laugh, and stepped away.

"I doubt it, Yoshi. You've denied any interest in getting involved, so it's completely out of all our hands now, that is," Dino shot a lazy look at Tsuna's ducked head, smiling slightly, "Unless Tsuna decides to snatch away the rings and go haring off to his Boss."

Yoshi's Storm Guardian, Smoking Bomb Hayato if Dino wasn't mistaken, made a strangled sound at Dino's words and collapsed into his fellow guardian, sitting quietly beside him with a bright smile.

Tsuna scoffed loudly, lifting his head to stare Dino down.

"You make the funniest jokes, _fratellone._ "

Dino beamed at him.

"Ah, _fratellino_ , your sweet words always warm my heart," he said, laughing at the revolted grimace on both Tsuna and Yoshi's faces.

"Oh my. Everyone looks so serious. I think you all need a break; let's all settle down for dinner, hmm?"

Sawada Nana's voice had the same effect as cold water being thrown in everyone's faces. Iemitsu visibly shook himself and straightened, offering his wife a strained smile.

"That's a wonderful idea, dear. Let's eat."

…it was only later, sitting in the backyard to share a quiet smoke that Iemitsu said any more on the subject.

"He could have had everything. _Everything."_ He muttered, sounding exhausted. Dino sighed, and glanced back into the house. He could sense Reborn's presence, quietly listening to what was being said, just as he could feel that neither of the twins was sleeping in their shared room. Nana seemed to be waiting for her husband, but Dino suspected the older man wouldn't be retiring to bed any time soon.

"I'd say he already has everything he wants, Iemitsu-san." Dino murmured back in careful Japanese, and Iemitsu pressed his face into his hand, barely avoiding singeing himself on the edge of his cigarette. An anguished sound erupted from deep in his chest, and Dino sighed, burning away the first words that came to mind in the next nicotine-laced intake of breath.

"I only wanted what was best for them." Iemitsu whispered.

"I would argue that leaving one son to the Vongola's Premiere Execution Squad and the naming the other as tentative heir to the Famiglia doesn't necessarily mean the best for either of them, but then, I'd be biased." Dino drawled back.

Iemitsu shot him a pained glance.

"Because of your father?" he asked, uncomfortably close to the truth, but Dino laughed away the twinge of pain the words drew out.

"There is that, but mostly because they're my brothers, Iemitsu. I wouldn't wish our life on anyone not directly involved, and certainly not someone who had absolutely no reason to be a part of it until you dragged them in."

Iemitsu gave a sigh of his own, taking a deep drag and breathing it out slowly.

"You should know better than anyone else that they're both safer if I bring them into the Famiglia, Cavallone."

Dino gave a sad smile at that, remembering the number of assassination attempts he'd suffered in his childhood, and all the hatred he'd felt at the thought of succeeding the man whose very existence had ensured that Dino couldn't lead a normal life.

He _did_ know better, after all. He wouldn't have given in to Reborn's learn-or-die methods if he didn't.

"That doesn't mean I can't wish that they'd have a chance at a happier, easier life, Iemitsu-san."

"I wanted to ensure that they'd both be at the front. The _best_ of what I had to offer, and they both had to go and-" Iemitsu broke off with an exasperated grunt, leaving Dino to snicker to himself.

"You probably should have asked them first. Neither of your sons likes being ordered around, they're both equally as stubborn."

"This isn't funny, Dino. It's only going to create dissent if Yoshi decides to get involved later, now."

"I doubt it. He seemed very firmly in favour of Xanxus, after all."

Iemitsu stiffened beside him, and shot him an alarmed glance. Dino smiled back at him lazily, and leaned back on his elbows in an indolent sprawl.

"He… he actually said-"

"He didn't need to say anything. Your sons' views have been readily apparent for years, Iemitsu. I suspect you and Timoteo are the only ones who expected anything different."

"He hasn't even _met_ Xanxus. Or anyone else from the Famiglia, for that matter!" Iemitsu hissed.

Dino rolled his eyes.

"His _brother_ , Iemitsu. Are you blind?"

The man only looked more confused, and alarmed, and Dino groaned, because this wasn't even remotely amusing anymore. How in the world could a father care so much for his sons and be so ignorant of how their minds and their relationship with each other worked?

"Listen carefully, Sawada, because someone needs to spell it out for you and I don't want to have to do this more than once. Yoshi _loves_ his brother. Has loved him since they were children, and continued to love him even after your and Timoteo's decision to break their Guardian bond had Tsuna transferred over to Palermo whenever you could get him away. And Tsuna cares for his younger brother just as much. They trust each other's judgement. Why _wouldn't_ Yoshi support the candidate that his brother favours when he trusts Tsuna's judgement in everything else?"

Iemitsu still looked confused. Dino made a face, and snuffed out his cigarette on the bottom of his shoe, heaving himself up with a groan.

"Think it over, Iemitsu-san. And for your wife's sake, if not your own, don't try to drive your sons against one and other again. You're only decreasing whatever little faith they have left in you every time you do."

He left the older man to his thoughts without any more said.

Reborn was waiting for him in the shadows once he was back inside the house. He met his old tutor's gaze challengingly, and Reborn gave a low laugh.

"You've grown, Dino."

"Have I? Please don't praise me too much, Reborn, or my heart'll give out. Romario would never forgive you." Dino said airily, making the Arcobaleno laugh, jumping up to land lightly on his shoulder.

"Idiot. Come on, Tsuna and Yoshi are both waiting up for you." He said fondly, making Dino grin.

"Are they? Oh, they're both adorable, Reborn. You should make sure all your future students are just as cute."

The cold press of a gun against his temple made him laugh nervously.

"Sorry, sorry. I'll sto- AH!"

He somehow managed to stumble over thin air and crash forward on the stairs. The resulting sound was loud enough that it drew both the brothers out of their room and down to investigate.

"Uh. You ok down there, Dino-san?" Yoshi asked worriedly. Tsuna was staring down at him curiously from over Yoshi's shoulder. Dino sighed, and waved back at them.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. No idea what happened there. I'll just be on my way u-"

"Stop before you hurt yourself, Dino-san. Here-"

Dino smiled up at Reborn, who'd jumped off and somehow landed on Yoshi's head in the interim, carefully leaning his weight into Tsuna's side, clutching reflexively at his shoulders.

"It's crazy, how I keep falling over things when you're around, _fratellino,"_ he said teasingly. Tsuna rolled his eyes, helping him up the stairs, while Yoshi laughed softly, wrapping a supporting arm around Dino's waist once they were on the landing.

"Don't you mean it's funny how you keep falling over things when Romario isn't around?" Tsuna shot back snidely.

"Lies! All lies!" Dino gasped, making both his brothers laugh.

The arms supporting him on either side felt more like home than nearly anything else had in a while. He loved his Family, he couldn't have asked for better men. But Reborn and the twins had brought in the feeling of a _family_ , the kind that he'd dreamt of for years, back when he demanded that his father leave him to live a normal life. Romario had been the closest he'd gotten to that feeling, after his father finally passed away, never really understanding why Dino had been so upset by his demands to become the next Don.

"…Hey, d'you want to have hot chocolate?" Tsuna said suddenly, when they reached his and Yoshi's room. Dino and Yoshi both looked back at him, bemused, while Tsuna slowly reddened under their regard.

Reborn laughed, and hopped from Yoshi's head onto his.

"Is that supposed to be Lussuria-nee's remedy for a trying day?" he asked, amused. Tsuna made a horrified sound.

"How the hell do you know about that?" he damn-near _squeaked,_ and Dino burst into helpless snickers along with Yoshi.

Reborn, for his part, directed a bland look down at the top of Tsuna's head, and tugged at his hair pointedly.

"Because I know _everything."_

Tsuna all but pouted, at that, and sullenly stared at the ground.

"So I thought it would be nice to share some hot chocolate together. So sue me." He mumbled, actually beginning to sound awkward, so Dino used the arm he still had around Tsuna's shoulders to drag him into a tight hug, ignoring the way he yelped and struggled to get away.

"Okay, I think it would be nice too! Don't you think that's a nice idea, Yoshi?"

"Of course I do, Dino-san! Come on, let's go back down."

"Maybe Maman would like a mug too?" Reborn suggested leadingly, making Tsuna slowly look up again.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Come on, Dino-san, let's go down, Tsuna-nii can ask kaa-chan if she'd like to come down too."

"Okay, I'll just go and ask mom, then." Tsuna called after them, sounding amused in spite of himself.

It made Dino want to laugh till his cheeks ached. From the giggle Yoshi buried in his shoulder, he clearly felt the same way.

X

 _Yoshi asked him to repeat the words, because he couldn't quite believe what was coming out of his brother's mouth. The repetition didn't help. Because they_ still _didn't make any sense. Not to him._

" _What do you mean, that I should become friends with Hibari-san when you're not here? Where are you going?!" he demanded, confused. His brother stared back at him, his face serious in a way that reminded Yoshi uncomfortably of their mother, on the rare days that she wasn't acting silly._

" _Yoshi…" his brother started hesitantly, but Yoshi cut him off with a yell._

" _No! NO! You're not going anywhere, Tsuna-nii, no-!" he stopped only when his brother enfolded him in a tight hug, muffling his words. Yoshi kept yelling until his throat ached and his eyes were wet._

 _He couldn't feel his brother anymore. There was an empty pit in his chest, hollow and deep where he Tsuna's strength had beat sure and fast like the heart of a bird held in his hands, before. He'd felt safe, protected, whenever his brother was around, that unyielding support had always been there, he'd never needed to see or touch it to_ know _it and now it was GONE._

 _It was gone. He couldn't feel his brother anymore. His brother was there, but he couldn't feel him anymore, he was gone, gone, gone-_

" _Yoshi," Tsuna whispered into his hair, and he gave a broken sob._

" _You can't leave me, brother. You_ can't." _he bit out, and felt the soft press of lips against his temple._

" _I won't. I'm here. But I'll have to go, at least for a little while."_

" _No." he repeated, but it sounded helpless this time. Because he couldn't actually say no to his brother. He'd never been able to say it before, even when he knew with every beat of his brother's heart inside his chest that Tsuna would listen to everything he'd say. And he couldn't say it now, with that emptiness yawning inside him, fearing that it would chase Tsuna away._

" _Yoshi. I'm not going anywhere." Tsuna repeated._

 _Yoshi hated himself for not being able to trust that._

 _The next day, Jii-chan reached for his forehead, fingers glinting orange, and his brother threw himself at the old man with a snarl, the sharp knives Mama kept for the meat gleaming in his hands and glowing purple._

 _He sat sobbing into his brother's chest for the rest of the day, hiding from both their parents and the old man. The hard press of Tsuna's arm against the back of his neck was a comfort, as was the glint of the knives that his brother hand smuggled up into their rooms._

" _I'm not going anywhere," Tsuna repeated, whispered it into his hair and ears, and Yoshi finally found himself believing it._

 _He couldn't feel his brother anymore, that sense of strength that beat in his chest and flowed through his veins was gone. But his brother was still there._

 _He didn't let go, even when he heard kaa-chan screaming on the other side of the door, yelling at their dad and the old man. Yoshi couldn't understand half the words she was saying, and the little that he did understand made his ears go warm. But he was glad,_ glad _, that at least their mother was as angry as he and his brother were._

 _He didn't let go until she peeked into their room, smiling tearfully and holding plates of steaming Salisbury steak out as a peace offering._

" _Become friends with Kyoya, Yoshi," his brother said again, later in the night. He whispered into the back of Yoshi's neck, arms tightening around Yoshi's waist, and Yoshi shivered, eyes going wet again._

" _You're going to leave."_

" _I won't."_

" _Brother-"_

" _I'm not going anywhere, Yoshi."_

 _Yoshi went silent, tearing up, but he held onto his brother's arms with both hands._

" _Okay. Okay, Tsuna-nii. I will. I'll become friends with him." He whispered back fearfully, and felt his brother sag into his back in relief._

" _Okay," Tsuna said, and Yoshi had to press his face into the pillow so Tsuna didn't hear him crying again._

 _His brother didn't let go until the next morning, when mom came to wake them up for breakfast._

X

Takeshi watched the meeting between Yoshi and Tsuna-nii's Boss with his eyes wide, lips tucked up in a careful grin so no one paid as much attention to what he was focused on. The expression was a reflex these days, as much as anything was, but Yoshi never really seemed to mind it much.

And, anyway, Gokudera _did_ , which made it worth smiling all the more, some days.

Speaking of which, Gokudera was squirming beside him, clearly wanting to go stand by their friend's side. Takeshi barely held back from rolling his eyes, and nudged at him roughly with his shoulder.

Gokudera barely moved an inch. It made Takeshi's smile widen, just a little bit, before he got it under control again. Yoshi always managed to find so many interesting people. He'd been utterly bored before he broke his arm and Yoshi talked him down from the bridge. Life without baseball had seemed emptier than life _with_ it, and he hadn't wanted to deal with the compounded boredom before the weird kid from his class who didn't have any friends dragged him down and off the edge.

He'd stared into Yoshi's bright, incandescent eyes then and wondered why the boy didn't have a fan club bigger and more rabid than Takeshi's own, because his face and the cut of his teeth when he yelled incoherently were more arresting than anything Takeshi had seen in his _life._ Except, maybe his dad's blades, especially the rare moments when he caught sight of his dad actually practicing his bladework before he noticed Takeshi spying on him and stopped.

 _Oh,_ he'd thought the next day, when Yoshi had been sitting as quiet as a mouse and not really looking at anyone in class. _That's_ why he didn't have a fan following. Takeshi was the only one who really knew how stunning Yoshi could be. Other than the strange, ash-haired _hāfu_ that had invaded their class a week ago, who followed the cringing boy around with hearts in his eyes. He'd been amused enough by the sight that it had distracted him from the monotony of class and the people who surrounded him every day, talking loudly and pawing at him familiarly without pause. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten how interesting the sight had been, after he broke his arm.

But, everything had seemed so _empty…_

"Oi, baseball-idiot." Gokudera growled under his breath, and Takeshi came back to himself with a start.

"Yeah, Hayato?" he asked cheerfully, making him Gokudera snarl at him, nearly foaming at the mouth.

Takeshi burst into loud laughter, not stopping even when Gokudera caught him by the collar and shook him wildly. He could be so. Much. _Fun._

"So, you're Tsuna's brother, are you."

The words, spoken plainly in harsh baritone, made Takeshi pull himself back in check, watching with some amusement as Gokudera's pale face was doused in scarlet. The blush rushing to his cheeks and skin made him nearly glow with the colour in a way that really couldn't be healthy. He shot Takeshi a warning glance before turning his attention back to Yoshi who, when Takeshi glanced back to see for himself, was staring up at Xanxus with a blank expression on his face.

Takeshi had seen that look before, more than once, on _both_ the Sawada brothers' faces. Yoshi had tried to explain it once, back before Tsuna-nii had appeared, saying that it was like a sixth sense acting up, but Reborn had explained it to him quietly, after Gokudera and Yoshi had both headed home after a long day of training. _Intuition,_ he'd said. Something like how Takeshi just _knew_ things somehow. Whether the opposing pitcher was having a good day of it or not. The best angle at which to hit the ball, when it came roaring at him in challenge. When to make a run for it – and when _not_ to.

The best places to hit someone, to make sure it hurt. The right angle at which to direct a blade, if he wanted it to cut, and cut deep. And what to do if he wanted to _hold back._

Yeah, it made him leery of those blank looks on the brothers' faces. Especially when Reborn explained it like that. Reborn'd said that the sense was for different things – that Tsuna-nii probably had Takeshi's sense in addition to whatever the brothers shared, that both the Sawada twins had a sense whispering secrets about the world in their ears – but anything that gave you so much information for free made Takeshi wary.

It was real damned hard to hold back sometimes, after all.

"Yeah, that's me. And you're Xanxus." Yoshi was saying, voice serious, making most of Xanxus' friends bristle on the other side.

It made Takeshi want to curl over and laugh until he was out of breath and couldn't stand anymore. It was like something out of a movie, with Tsuna-nii's Boss and Yoshi meeting in the centre, with him, Gokudera, Hana and Kyoko on one side, with Hibari-san hovering silently in the background like a big bird of prey, and all of Xanxus' people, dressed to the nines in leather and bristling threateningly on the other side.

Tsuna-nii was silently standing near his Boss and brother, at right-angles to both of them, body language all but screaming that he wasn't going to take a side.

Reborn hummed softly, easily balanced on the top of Takeshi's head, and sounding indulgently amused.

"I don't see why _we_ have to be here," Hana was hissing irately, her breath leaving her in a near-silent whoosh when Kyoko pointedly stamped on her foot.

"To support Yoshi-kun, of course. Tsuna-san and Reborn-san both said that he needed us here, and we don't need to do anything but stand and wait. There's nothing wrong with that, right?"

 _We can be nice, can't we, Hana-chan?_

Takeshi could nearly hear the words humming unsaid. Hana gave her friend a weak smile, and Takeshi just _had_ to laugh again, just once, before silencing himself.

Tsuna-nii and Reborn hadn't said that it specifically had to be the two girls. They were Yoshi's friends too, even if they weren't very close friends, but Reborn had seemed strangely insistent that Yoshi invite Kyoko's older brother instead. And Lambo, the afro-haired kid that was staying at Yoshi's place for a bit.

Yoshi said he didn't want to take a kid or bother a senior who was likely to be _busy on a weekend_ unless he was forced to, though, so Reborn had caved and asked him to get in touch with Hana and Kyoko instead. Tsuna-nii had seemed strangely amused at his acquiescence, while Reborn had waved his gun threateningly at the older Sawada twin until he stopped smiling.

Hibari-san had, surprisingly, agreed to come after a low conversation with Yoshi's brother. They'd both come away with too-wide smiles after that. It had made Takeshi terribly curious until Yoshi had cleared his throat uncomfortably, forcing Takeshi to look away from them.

"…heh. You're pretty tough, kid." Xanxus said, suddenly, making more than one of his men freeze in shock. The white-haired swordsman, Squalo, actually stopped to wriggle a finger in his ears to see if he was hearing right.

Yoshi was giving the older man, tall, dark and entirely too forbidding, a bright, beaming smile.

"You're not so bad yourself, Xanxus-san. Tsuna-nii really likes you."

"Oi, Yoshi!" Tsuna yelped, horrified, while Xanxus' lips spread in a toothy smirk, gaze easily snapping towards him.

"Oh, does he now."

"No I _don't_ , Boss. You're insufferable!" Tsuna rapped back, making Yoshi tsk at him.

"Oh, should I have said you really look up to him instead, Tsuna-nii?"

"No I _don't_ , stop lying Yoshi!"

"It's only a lie if it isn't _true_ , nii-san!"

Nearly everyone on the shore was laughing at that point, even most of Xanxus' men. Well, Hibari-san wasn't, Takeshi could feel his ire like the serrated edge of a blade against his spine, but it didn't stop him from giving in to the moment and laughing as well, leaning slightly into Gokudera's solid strength beside him. Just to see if he'd jerk and scream again.

Surprisingly enough, he didn't. All Takeshi got for his troubles was an irked, suspicious look before Gokudera turned his attention back to the way Yoshi had cuddled up to his brother and Xanxus was, dare he say, _teasingly_ ruffling Tsuna's hair. The smile on his face wasn't very nice at all, all of the Varia members' smiles had too many edges to look nice, but there was honest mirth in every line of them.

Takeshi could tell, after all. He didn't think he'd smiled honestly even once in his life.

X

(Exaggerating it. He was exaggerating it. He'd probably smiled honestly at least a few times at Yoshi. Or when Gokudera hissed at him and fluffed up like a startled cat. Or after he'd met Tsuna-nii for the first time, when the older Sawada had eyed him from head to toe, face blank, before offering him a biting grin, asking if life with Yoshi was less boring than without him. It had made Takeshi's breath catch in his chest, startled, before he nearly choked on his laughter, half hysterical and half relieved, amused down to his very bones. Yes, yes, _yes._ He'd never had this much fun before, _ever._

The confession had made Tsuna beam back at him in pride. Takeshi still wasn't sure whom Tsuna had been proud of, Yoshi or _him.)_

X

" _It's probably a bad idea, Boss."_

 _The quiet words, spoken by the child beside them made Viper frown, surprised. They agreed with the verdict, it was a_ very _bad idea, but Xanxus paid them enough that they didn't mind committing themselves to the cause._

 _They hadn't expected that one of the others would voice dissent, though. And certainly not the, ha, littlest guardian._

 _Predictably, most of the others seemed incensed at the child's gall to voice something against the Boss, but young Tsunayoshi seemed to be perfectly calm and confident in his verdict. The set of the child's face and shoulders made the Boss frown thoughtfully and, wonder of wonders, he actually gestured for Tsunayoshi to elaborate on his statement._

 _Viper watched the tableau with raised brows, interested despite themselves._

" _Well, for one thing, the old man and my dad have been watching us like hawks, Boss. They have been for a while, ever since Enrico got shot down a few years ago."_

 _The words made Levi growl under his breath, and Bel broodingly flipped one of his knives. Lussuria pushed his shades up, expressionless, while Squalo scowled down at the boardroom desk, fingers tugging absently at the longer strands of hair hanging low on his neck. The length was starting to look unkempt, now, nearly three years since Squalo had made the vow that he'd cut his hair only after Don Nono declared their Boss a legitimate heir to the headship of the Vongola. Viper didn't move, simply stayed motionless where they sat, shoulders stiff beneath their coat._

 _It wasn't pleasant, being viewed with suspicion by fools who were so beneath them, in experience, wealth and sheer ability. That they chose to view their_ Boss, _the man they'd chosen as the worthiest to sell their loyalty to, was only more galling. Very few things had left such a sour taste in their mouth, Viper could count them on the fingers of one hand. And the only other incident that had raised such searing bloodlust and a need for vengeance in them had been Checkerface and what he had wrought._

 _They did not enjoy the indignity of being kept under watch. They'd suffered it enough, in their first youth. Suffering it again, in addition to being cursed, left them chafing at the bit. They'd nearly offered to do the deed for free, before logic had intervened, such was their distaste for the fools at the Vongola Estate._

 _Xanxus rolled his eyes, and slowly leaned back in his seat._

" _That's the entire reason we've put this off for so long. Why wait any longer, brat. Give me your reasons. If they make sense, I'll take them into consideration."_

 _Young Tsunayoshi nodded slowly, thinking it over, before looking up and piercing the Boss with a gimlet stare._

" _Enrico and Frederico might be dead, but Massimo isn't. And he's a far poorer candidate than you, Boss." He said baldly. The words made Xanxus start in surprise, while the rest of his fellow guardians choked on surprised laughter. Squalo's breath escaped him roughly, in a sound that seemed to have been dragged, bloody and unwilling, from his chest, and Viper watched with a small smile on their face as the Commander finally drew his fingers away from his hair, instead patting Tsuna on the head._

 _Tsuna shoved the fingers away, shooting the white haired man a dirty look before looking back at the Boss, expression comically serious for a ten-year-old._

" _I think we should wait, Boss. The old man's a fool, but he's a dangerous fool. And_ my _old man's no better. We don't need a war we can avoid, especially not when a majority of the forces at the Estate are bound to turn around and support you if Don Nono is fool enough to nominate Massimo for succession."_

 _Xanxus stared him down, clearly turning the words over in his head. It was nothing that they'd not thought of before, that_ Xanxus _had not thought of before, but Viper could feel the shift of emotion in the air. Where before the boardroom had been filled with resentment, with indignity upon indignity forced on them, being treated more like wild dogs than the proud organisation they truly were, Tsuna's clear words, delivered in the voice of a child, had shaken them free of their blind rage._

 _If nothing else, they had woken the rain from his quest for blood. Viper could already feel the clarity of thought offered by Squalo's presence increasing. The rain was the one that washed everything away, after all. Squalo's anger incited the need to literally wash away everything in their path - and his clarity of thought caused all of them to breathe easier than before._

 _Consider other options that they hadn't considered feasible, before._

" _Squalo," Xanxus murmured, voice gruff._

 _Squalo breathed in slowly, mind working at whatever it was that Xanxus had asked him. Before nodding decisively, once, eyes sharp and piercing._

" _Makes sense, Boss. The Estate's filled with enough fools and wretches that I'd suggest cleaning house, later, but the kid's got a point. Things were different, back when Frederico was still around, but if it came down to you and Massimo, I'd say nearly seventy percent of the Main House would support your claim to succession."_

"… _that isn't hundred percent," Viper said, voice soft. It drew everyone's eyes, including Tsuna's._

" _Meaning, it boils down to whether or not we want a war. I say, let's give them that war! They've certainly got it coming. Ushishishishi."_

" _Yeah, Boss! Mammon's right. If it isn't a sure victory, why the hell should we hold back? We may as well strike hard and take power by force!"_

" _Silence, both of you! Don't act like impulsive children." Lussuria snapped, making both Bel and Levi sag in their chairs, thoroughly chastened and looking sullen. Viper sighed, lifting a hand and carefully pinching the bridge of their nose. It did nothing to relieve the stress._

" _It isn't hundred percent, but it means that, if we wait and see whom Don Timoteo nominates as heir, we'll have seventy percent of the Estate's forces standing behind us when we take down Massimo. Or Timoteo, for that matter. Even the CEDEF wouldn't be able to deny the Boss' claim when such a large percentage of the regular forces are on Boss' side. The child's reasoning is sound, Boss."_

 _Lussuria nodded, lips curling slightly. He clearly agreed with Viper's assessment, as did Squalo. The lines of Squalo's face were set, serious, but Viper could see the feral smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. The man was all but an embodiment of his name, sometimes, and the look in his eyes all but screamed that he could sense blood in the water._

 _Viper concurred. This seemed to be the best option for success, even if it meant they would have to wait longer before they could savour the fruit of their labours._

 _Xanxus watched them as a whole, clearly cataloguing all their expressions, their reactions to the new option that had been laid out before them. Then, slowly, his gaze slid over to Tsuna, who was sitting still and attentive, all of his focus directed unerringly at the Boss, to the point that he hadn't noticed Squalo's hand settling on the top of his head again._

 _And then, almost gently, a soft smile unfurled on the Boss' face. It made all of them stiffen in their seats, Viper included, a near primal reflex in their brains warning them not to move even a millimetre, in fear that they would draw the consideration of the beast seated before them, waiting for any excuse to slake its thirst for blood._

" _Then it's decided. We'll wait. Only time will tell if this is going to be a good call on your part, Tsuna. You'd better fucking hope to any higher power you believe in that it_ is _a good call. Or I'm taking it out of your hide."_

 _And then, for the first time since Xanxus had actually inducted the boy among their number, nearly six years ago, the sweet, charming and at times serious expression they'd gotten used to seeing on the child's face melted away to reveal a hunger nearly as transfixing as Xanxus' own. Tsuna's teeth were bared in a breathtakingly vicious grin, eyes shifting to a vivid purple that appeared lambent in the low light of the room, and the expression was jarring enough that they nearly missed what the boy said next._

" _Bring it, Boss. I'd bet anything that you'll make a killing by waiting it out here, but if you don't, I'll be waiting for that fight."_

 _The achingly soft tone with which the boy said the word 'fight' viscerally reminded Viper of, unnervingly enough, both Reborn and Fon. And even Skull, on the days when he all but dived into the jaws of death with a jester's laugh and a shit-eating grin._

 _It made the Boss burst out in raucous laughter, head thrown back in sheer delight at the boy's temerity._

 _Poor Levi looked rather like he'd lifted up a kitten only to find himself face to face with a lion cub, teeth bared in a snarl, which Bel seemed to be reassessing the boy with an uncharacteristic frown on his young face. Squalo and Lussuria, to Viper's surprise, didn't look at all taken aback. If anything, Lussuria looked_ fond. _And Squalo looked amused, idly petting the boy's hair._

 _Viper eyed the child suspiciously, and decided to let it go. For now. Nothing stopped them from keeping watch of the boy, after all, fellow guardian or not. At best, he would have information to share on all of Tsuna's weaknesses, when they finally chose to trust the child. And at worst, well… Viper would have no guilt in finishing him off._

 _Out of the mouth of babes, they thought ironically. The boy would either be a priceless asset or the greatest liability. It would be their duty to wipe him out. No one who reminded them of Reborn, Fon_ and _Skull should be left unwatched._

X

"…and we just have to slip on the ring."

"Yes."

"That's it?"

" _Yes."_

"And here I thought Sawada and Don Nono would have you and Massimo duelling bravely till Kingdom Come, Boss," Squalo said sarcastically, making more than one of the men sitting in the room snort contemptuously.

It was the greatest blow to Timoteo that he couldn't quite tell if his me were among those how had laughed at the thought of Massimo attempting to match up against Xanxus. Timoteo wasn't truly surprised by the reaction – Massimo had never had even a quarter of the strength possessed by his brothers, in purity of flame or in sheer harmonising ability. And certainly not against Xanxus – the tale of him somehow harmonising with young Tsunayoshi from nearly halfway across the estate had already made the rounds years ago through the Famiglia, Allied Families, Rivals and Enemies.

Tsunayoshi still looked so young, barely a few months past his fifteenth birthday, and he stood back silently, pointedly situated a few steps to the right of Squalo, who was standing a single step back and to the right of Xanxus.

The position had left more than a few of the younger capos that Timoteo had invited in to the meeting murmuring feverishly to each other in an undertone. Understandably so, since Tsuna's position implied that, after his right hand's judgement, Xanxus prized the teen's word the most in the circle of his guardians. Not necessarily his left hand, Timoteo knew for a fact that that position still belonged to Lussuria, but if it came down to requiring a second opinion after Squalo's in a pinch, it would be Tsuna's words that would carry weight over everyone else's.

It was an astonishingly powerful position to retain. And to offer it to one so young, without ever having aired the amount of trust he had in Tsunayoshi in years since the boy had become Xanxus' guardian? It could imply a number of things in the case of both Xanxus _and_ Tsuna.

But, Timoteo decided, sighing heavily as Massimo stood up to walk towards the table, a smug smile pasted on his face, those implications could wait.

Even as Massimo lifted the ring from the case Timoteo had set out before him, slipping it on to his finger with an easy smile, Timoteo found his gaze shifting past his son to land of Tsunayoshi, who had a strange little smile playing on his lips, eyes blank. Timoteo felt a chill rush down his spine, because he _recognised_ that expression. He jerked around to stare at where Iemitsu was standing to his left. The older Sawada's eyes were also focused on his son. The blankness in his gaze wasn't as pronounced as Tsunayoshi's, Iemitsu had already confided that both his sons were far better attuned to the Vongola Intuition than him, but even a weaker connection to the Intuition meant that Iemitsu had some sense of what was to come.

And what a sense it was.

Iemitsu suddenly roared, making every man and woman seated in the room jerk up to their feet, alarmed. Timoteo, though, didn't have the change to react before Iemitsu grabbed his armchair by its broad back and dragged it away from the table by force.

Neither Visconti nor Coyote hesitated to grab the armchair by its arms, helping Iemitsu drag him further back. It was only then that Timoteo had the presence of mind to look back at his son. The sight nearly made his old heart stop in his chest.

Nie made a pained sound, reaching out to press a slim hand to Timoteo's shoulder, while horrified screams broke out in the room.

For his part, Massimo slowly sagged to the ground, face a pasty white, and blood leaking out of nearly every orifice on his face. The quickly spreading stain of red around his waist implied that it wasn't just the orifices on his head that were leaking blood.

" _Nie!"_ Timoteo snapped, and Nie immediately let go of his shoulder, rushing forward to help the slip of a girl who had dropped to her knees beside Massimo, shaking. She was still young, untrained. The only real marks in her favour were her pretty face and the swell of her chest – undoubtedly the only reason his fool of a son had picked the girl and her sister in the first place.

Massimo's dalliances had been initially amusing, and later mortifying, but they didn't really become disastrous until after Enrico had been killed, and Frederico disappeared.

Timoteo turned a pleading look towards Xanxus, who was liable to become the last living member of his sons if nothing was done soon.

Xanxus sighed, looking exasperated.

"Lussuria."

"No."

That brought the pandemonium in the room to an abrupt halt. Xanxus was staring at his sun guardian with raised brows, much like the rest of his circle of guardians, but none of them had the sheer incredulity that Timoteo knew had been dragged on to his face.

"He told me to my face that I didn't deserve to live, Boss, before deciding to take that little girl on as his Sun Guardian. If he didn't think he needed my support, I see no reason to give it to him now."

Lussuria sounded airy, looking out the window and fiddling with his tinted shades, but Timoteo had enough years of experience to read the hatred and vengeful amusement lining every sinew of Lussuria's form. Massimo's sun guardian had turned around to look at her counterpart, helpless tears streaming down her cheeks and unable to do anything but cry and watch as Nie desperately attempting to heal Massimo's body to a point that it could support itself.

Timoteo could only watch with mounting despair. Nie was gifted, a prodigy in every way, but even a prodigy could do little to fight a curse inflicted by a part of the Tri-Ni-Sette on his own.

"Lussuria," Timoteo breathed, unable to beg, even if he wanted to. A Don could not beg. Not even for the life of his son, not when so many of the Famiglia's members were spread out across the room, waiting to see the direction in which the wind would blow.

"Apologies, Don Timoteo. You, I respect. But your elder son isn't even an iota of the man you are. I will not stoop to heal a man that would have me persecuted for my lifestyle." Lussuria snapped, and there was the harsh, unyielding strength that Timoteo had once sought to gift to his boy, years ago, before the fool of a child had spurned one of the most powerful sun flame users Timoteo had had the luck to stumble across in _decades._

There was nothing he had been able to do to convince Lussuria to remain at the Main House. He'd transferred to the Compound the moment he'd heard of it. Xanxus had only reaped the benefits of what his brother had thrown away as trash, after all. And Xanxus was never one to spurn what others considered trash.

"I'll do it."

The young voice speaking up in the void that Lussuria's words had left behind had Timoteo jerking in surprise.

"Tsuna," Iemitsu said, sounding painfully surprised. Tsuna shot his father a dry look, and looked away.

"I know how to activate the body's capacity for growth, it's one of the things I specialise in after all. But I can't use that capacity for healing anything at this level of severity, it's beyond me." He said, voice hard.

There was silence, with most of Timoteo's capos, Xanxus' guardians, Tsuna's _father_ and Timoteo's own guardians staring at the boy in sheer disbelief. And then, another voice spoke aloud, straining to make itself heard.

"Then come, brat. Sit at my side and use your skills. Activate damn near every cell in this man's body, and then leave the rest to me." Nie ground out through clenched teeth, drenched with sweat and shaking.

Tsuna glanced at his Boss for a second confirmation, and Xanxus gave him a bored nod, turning around to go back to the seats that had been assigned to the Varia when they'd first stepped into the room.

Tsuna dropped down on the other side of Massimo's form without another word, ignoring the teary words of thanks the girl was offering him. He tore off his gloves with his teeth and set his pale fingered hands to Massimo's chest, which Nie had already bared in the hope that immediate contact with skin would create a direct conduit for the flames to flow.

Timoteo watched with bated breath, hoping in spite of everything for a miracle.

A spark suddenly erupted up from Massimo's body, colliding with Tsuna's chest and throwing him backwards with colossal force, much to the horror of Timoteo, Iemitsu and Xanxus, all of whom reared up to their feet in alarm. Of the three, it was Xanxus who reached him first, mostly because Iemitsu was still on the other side of the table and had to jump onto to it and run straight across, and Timoteo had to struggle against his well-meaning guardians before he had _any_ chance of succeeding. While Xanxus just threw himself off _his_ armchair and slid to a stop beside his youngest guardian, teeth bared in fury.

"VOI! BOSS! Don't touch him!" Squalo yelled, dropping a hand to his shoulder and trying to pull him back, but Xanxus simply threw him off by virtue of sheer mass.

"Boss!"

"Squalo, shut up!" he snarled back, tilting Tsuna's face up and carefully peeling back his eyelids. Thankfully, there wasn't any unnatural dilation or constriction in either eye. And he _seemed_ to be reacting regularly to light –

But both his eyes were blank, as though he were staring at something none of them could see.

"Damn it. It's the intuition again," Iemitsu groaned, crouching down at Tsuna's other side. Both Squalo and Xanxus shot him an equally incredulous look, and Timoteo _had_ to laugh, mirthless though it way, when he slowly crouched down beside Iemitsu, Ganauche following closely after him with a wary expression on his face.

"The Intuition works in the strangest ways, Xanxus. I've thankfully never possessed any sign of it, but Iemitsu always did,"

"Always is stretching it, Timoteo – I might have possessed, but it was never as strong as what Tsuna possesses."

Squalo shot the older Sawada a sharp look, clearly noticing the omission of one of the man's children, but he let it go without a word. Iemitsu _did_ , after all, have good reason to try and keep the existence of at least one of his sons secret. Especially when, according to both his _consigliere_ and Dino, that the younger Sawada wanted absolutely nothing to do with inheriting the might of the Vongola.

Tsuna gave a strangled sound, jerking up. Xanxus got an arm around his shoulders, easily supporting him, while Squalo carefully checked his eyes.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, let _go-_ Nie Brow!"

When Timoteo's guardian shot him a pained, impatient glance, Tsuna grinned at him viciously.

"He'll heal now, don't try to stop the blood from flowing, just heal any wounds the curse might have left behind."

Nie stared at him incredulously, along with most of the room, including Timoteo himself.

But when Nie turned his attention back to his patient, hesitantly attempting what Tsuna had suggested, he sagged with a sigh of relief, immediately beginning work on Massimo's wounds.

"How did you know he would heal?" Iemitsu asked, a little awed. Tsuna shot his father a dirty look, and pushed him away.

"I told the old men and women to bugger off and let the idiot live, that's all. There's no reason to kill him just because he's a shitty candidate."

The words were the equivalent of a cannon going off in the slowly recovering balance of the room. The capos who'd come to support Massimo roared, going for their weapons, while the others who supported Xanxus cheered, and drawing guns out of holsters, secret pockets and waist bands and raising them to aim at their enemy.

Tsuna looked around himself with an exasperated look, while Timoteo frowned down at him, understandably piqued.

"What in the world gives you the right to claim that he's a 'shitty candidate'?" he asked incredulously, the sharp sound of his voice easily cutting through the tension Tsuna's words had raised.

Tsuna shot him a tired look, leaning into the strength of his Boss' grip. He nodded in Massimo's direction.

"What?"

Tsuna sighed, and that's when Nie made a shocked sound.

"Don Nono! The Ring – it's glowing!"

Timoteo suddenly went very, very still. Tsuna stared up at him with raised eyebrows, clearly waiting for a reaction.

"…You aren't a Sky."

Iemitsu made a surprised noise, eyes going back to his son.

"You got pulled into the Inheritance?"

Tsuna nodded at him, scowling slightly.

"At least now I know why you're such a pain, dad. Ieyasu-jii was a pain too."

Timoteo choked on his breath, caught between a feeling of hilarity and shock, because he distinctly remembered telling his mother that the Primo was a pain because he always asked the hardest question, years ago. His inheritance hadn't been as hazardous an affair as most Inheritances could be, He'd been an only child, a rarity in the mafia world, and Daniela had used her years to ensure that he'd been trained keeping all the traits the previous heads would want in an heir. And so, when the time came, it wasn't a question of the accepting him so much as it was the Heads decided that they could test him over time to see if he was _really_ worthy of the heirship. And Don Primo had always, _always_ had the questions that stumped him. Because they never had a predictable answer. The one time he thought there could be only one possible answer, the Founder had thrown his hands in the air and walked off, telling his successor to deal with the situation because clearly he wasn't going to have his way.

Giotto's words still didn't make complete sense to him, but Timoteo suspected that they never quite would. Not until he finally crossed over into the afterlife to take up his position beside the rest of the shades of the ring – fulltime, and in a manner that he would actually remember.

" _Shades_?" Xanxus was muttering incredulously. Squalo looked about as sceptical as Xanxus sounded.

Tsuna nodded back at them, smiling slightly.

"Ricardo was interesting. Reminded me a _lot_ of you, Boss. He wanted the curse to rebound on me too, since I wasn't supposed to be drawn in when I don't have a Sky flame, but Ieyasu-jii told him to stop acting like a kid and demanded to know why Yoshi wasn't taking the rings."

The room had gone unnervingly quiet, Timoteo noted distantly, unable to pull his eyes away from the young boy sitting before him, still leaning into his son.

Xanxus, on the other hand, was beginning to look disturbingly amused.

"Oh? And what'd you say to that?"

"Exactly what Yoshi told dad. He didn't have any reason to take up the heirship when there were other perfectly viable candidates available."

Xanxus burst out laughing, leaning against Squalo's legs, which were conveniently right behind him. Squalo swayed and took the weight with a low grunt, though he _did_ offer Tsuna a small smirk.

"And what'd Don Primo have to say to that?"

Tsuna grinned back at him toothily.

"Oh, that's the interesting one. Ieyasu-jii didn't say anything, he just went away with a scowl, while Ricardo and the others burst out laughing. Ricardo was the one who agreed to end the curse on Massimo."

"You're not saying how they responded to your words, Tsuna."

Tsuna shot Iemitsu a dirty look, clearly irritated that his father hadn't let him get away with the omission. Iemitsu stared back at him, looking exhausted, but his features were set and hard. He wasn't asking the question as Tsuna's father after all. The distinction seemed to make a difference to Tsuna, because he sighed and nodded in acquiescence.

"Ricardo said Yoshi sounded exactly like Ieyasu-jii did, back when lower tier members of the Vongola had tried to make him come back because they didn't like Ricardo's methods. Ieyasu-jii'd already shifted to Japan, and he'd gotten married. Settled down. Apparently some of his people managed to track him down, leaving Ricardo to come after them. He got to Ieyasu-jii's place just when he was done taking out the trash that had invaded his home, and he apparently said that he had no reason to return to Italy when he was satisfied with the way Ricardo was leading the Vongola."

The words felt like a slap in the face, and from the way Iemitsu rocked back, he clearly felt the same. Most of the younger men and women in the room just looked confused – they had no reason to understand the hauntingly supernatural bend that some matters of Inheritance could take. But Timoteo _did_. He was required to, after all, as was Iemitsu.

"So he supports your brother's decision, then."

 _That_ drew an interested murmur from their silent audience. The sudden spike in killing intent from _both_ the Sawadas made the whispers peter out as soon as they started.

"Yes, he does. All of them did, actually. Ieyasu-jii wasn't too happy, but he was willing to let it go."

"What did he say?" Xanxus asked curiously. Tsuna glanced up at him then, strangely enough, at Timoteo, eyes going blank.

"The 'next cycle, maybe'."

Timoteo breathed in sharply. Oh. Oh. Those words still sounded familiar, even after all these years.

Tsuna abruptly shifted onto his knees, ignoring Xanxus' protests to stay in one place and instead crawling towards where Nie was still gingerly holding onto the glowing Sky Ring. He carefully freed it from the older man's grasp, and brought it back to their little circle on the ground.

His action caused the rest of the Varia guardians, all of whom had been watching the proceedings cautiously, to draw closer. Lussuria looked beside himself with worry, all of the earlier anger having been tucked away at some point.

"Will it be ok? _Massimo_ was hit with a curse," he said, sounding concerned.

"It'll be fine, Lussuria-nee, don't be scared. The Dons said they were okay with Xanxus, that's why Massimo had such a harsh reaction. They were willing to let him leave unscathed after he answered a few questions, but he apparently answered them in nearly every wrong way he possibly could, so they decided to teach him a lesson."

The words had Timoteo sighing, in exasperation rather than dismay. Oh, his foolish, foolish boy.

Xanxus grunted, and reached out for the ring with a brusque motion.

"Let's get over with this, then."

There was a flash of brilliant amber flames that seemed to fill the entire room for a split second before they were gone, leaving Xanxus bent over and panting, wide-eyed and faint.

All his guardians were on him in a flash, talking all at once, even Tsuna leaning up to help support his broad form, looking worried.

Timoteo would never really remember what anyone else had been saying towards the end of the meeting that day, though. The only voice he would remember was Xanxus', hoarsely whispering 'anything, _anything_ to make sure they stay.' Again and again, not stopping, and only muffling the words into Tsuna and Squalo's hands when they reached out to cover his mouth.

X

 _Well, this was a fun castle to be in. Even if it wasn't exactly a castle, not the kind he was used to. Belphegor hadn't been in Italy for long, only a few weeks, before he'd heard the stories about monsters in the shadows. Which wouldn't do. Because if they were hiding in the shadows, how exactly would he play with them?_

 _Staying at home after he'd taken out his brother and parents had been boring, after. The first few soldiers who bravely tried to take revenge had been interesting, but they soon got irritating when they realised they couldn't come anywhere near hurting him._

 _He'd left his homeland and had been searching to something fun and challenging to do immediately after, leaving the few advisors he hadn't picked off to deal with creating a new line of succession for the kingdom. Or, well, they could turn it into a democracy. Belphegor_ hoped _they did that. It would be enjoyable to go back and show them the error of their ways._

 _He didn't care all that much if they installed a new King. He wasn't particularly interested in ruling, after all. But anything that threatened his position as royalty couldn't be allowed to exist._

 _He_ did _finally manage to find his monster in the dark, following the rumours and the tales of people being executed in cold blood in the shadows of the night. But it turned out to be a man instead. Tall, dark and forbidding in a way that Belphegor still wasn't quite familiar with, since his kingdom tended towards having people who were pale and blond. Or red headed. He'd seen at least a few dark haired people, but not like Italy, which had so many different kinds of people everywhere. And certainly no one like his monster, who was watching him with a tilted head, looking strangely amused._

" _How old are you, kid?"_

 _Belphegor wanted to protest the diminutive way in which this monster-man was referring to him, but his sense of self-preservation reared up. Because something in his gut seemed to warn him that unnecessarily making the man angry wouldn't be a good idea. It wasn't how harsh his face looked, or all the blood staining the ground beneath their feet. It wasn't even how huge the man seemed, because Belphegor had always been small for his age._

 _But_ something _in him warned him to be wary of the older man. Just as it had warned him to kill Rasiel before his brother chose to kill him. To kill his parents before_ they _killed him, because he'd heard them whispering about restarting things anew, since this set of children seemed just as bloodthirsty as the last. He grinned toothily at the other man, remembering all the little skulls and rotting flesh he'd found buried in the lower levels of his castle._

 _No, Belphegor thought, this man wasn't a monster at all._

" _I'm eight!" he said, smiling brightly behind the cover of his hair, and slipping a slim knife into the grip of his fingers, hidden away behind his long, loose sleeves._

 _The man suddenly looked even more interested._

" _Oh. I have a friend who's your age. Maybe an year younger than you. Would you like to come meet him?"_

 _Belphegor blinked and him, and shrugged easily. Why not. If the man turned out to be dangerous, he could easily get away. He'd done it enough times before, when he'd been travelling from country to country, bored and looking for something worth staying a while for._

 _He silently followed the man through the alleys till they reached where his car was idling, with another man with_ very _strange sideburns sitting behind the wheel. His monster easily slid into the back seat, and Belphegor slid in after him."_

" _Any particular reason why we're taking in another kid, Boss?" the man asked curiously, even as he shifted gears and stepped on the accelerator, easily shifting into the traffic on the streets._

" _Tsuna's been insufferable. Iemitsu dragged him out here earlier than usual, I think they were hoping to switch him into the Mafia Academy."_

 _Belphegor listened to the conversation with passing interest, instead watching with raised brows as the bustle of the city slowly petered away into countryside._

" _Tsuna did say that his father wanted to switch him out when he finished elementary school-"_

" _Is that anything like primary school here?"_

" _Something like it. I think Elementary goes on for another year, they're in the same school till they're twelve, and then they're switched out into… I think Tsuna called it junior high?"_

" _Oh. And that's secondary school?"_

" _I think so."_

"… _Boss, the kid is a pain, but he'll only get worse if Sawada drags him away from his brother to join a school here."_

 _The word brother immediately brought Belphegor's attention back to the two men, eyes narrow, but they weren't paying any attention to him._

 _The monster sighed dragging a hand down his face and covering his mouth, brows lowered in thought._

"… _I'm going to have to_ talk _to Sawada, aren't I."_

 _He sounded utterly disgusted at the thought. Belphegor's lips curled up in a smile, wondering who this 'Sawada' was._

"… _Probably, Boss. Or send Lussuria in. It's difficult to say no to him."_

 _The monster gave a bark of a laugh, finally relaxing into the seat._

" _That's probably a good idea, yeah. I'll think about it."_

 _After they'd reached the strange mansion they called the 'Compound'. It was already dark out, so he hadn't been able to see much, but they_ had _crossed walls. And soldiers guarding the land beyond. Belphegor could feel the old blood and the bloodlust singing through the corridors of this place, and them men and women milling about both within and without the residence seemed perfectly at ease with the atmosphere._

 _The coppery scent his senses were identifying said that there_ had _to be a large quantity of blood shed here, over time, enough to leave the building with the scent. But it was different from his parents' castle. There was something oddly clean about the scent here._

 _He quietly followed along in the monster's footsteps until they reached a door in the upper levels._

 _There was no response, so the man sighed, and aimed a kick to slam it open._

" _Xanxus, stop breaking down my doors!" yelled a high pitched voice from inside. Belphegor grinned, and followed the man in._

" _I'd stop breaking them down if your stopped fucking_ locking yourself in _– wait. You're crying. Those are tears, aren't they. What the fuck, kid?!"_

 _When he finally reached the inner chambers, where the monster, Xanxus, was sitting beside a tiny form swaddled in soft sheets, Belphegor didn't know if he should be amused or annoyed._ This _was what the monster had wanted to introduce him to?_

 _He held back the scoff that threatened to escape him, thought, because hard eyes abruptly focused on him from beneath the cover of the sheets and pillows. Belphegor's breath caught in his throat, because the eyes were a stunning, lambent purple, all but glowing in the little light that was coming into the room from the common rooms they'd left behind._

" _This is… oh. Come to think of it, I didn't ask you your name, kid."_

" _What the hell, Xanxus. Don't tell me you're randomly kidnapping kids to introduce them to me now. I thought that kind of crazy shit was my dad's bailiwick."_

"… _the hell, kid? Where'd you learn language like that?"_

" _Well, you see, when you're surrounded by all these shitty adults who kill for a living and swear all the damned time…"_

" _That wasn't what I meant and you_ know _it, brat!"_

 _The Prince was suitably impressed. When the child had drawn himself out of the cover of the sheets, it had been to reveal a form that was whipcord thin, with fluffy, messy brown hair and the same bright, purple eyes. He was fully clothed, but what Belphegor could see of the arms was well toned with lean muscle. The kid was well trained._

 _And then there was that feeling that his senses were shoving at him. Just as he'd known that Xanxus would be dangerous to anger, he could tell this boy was similarly dangerous in some way._

 _When the man and boy were finally done squabbling with each other, the boy scrambled out of his bed and on the ground. Now that he was closer, Belphegor could see the stains of salt on his cheeks, just as Xanxus had earlier._

" _I'm Belphegor," he offered cheerfully. "I'm eight, and a prince. I had to get rid of my twin brother because he wanted to stab me in my sleep, and my parents because they'd apparently been killing off any kids they had over the years, but yeah. It was fun for a while, but now it's boring, so I left my kingdom and came out here. I wanted to travel, because I was bored. What about you?"_

 _Xanxus made an odd, choking sound behind them, but the boy looked suitably impressed._

" _Oh, I'm Tsunayoshi. I'm seven. But everyone calls me Tsuna, because I have a younger brother named Yoshi. I don't think I'll ever need to kill him, I love him too much, but I've come close to killing a lot of bullies every year, back in my hometown, because they hurt Yoshi. And other children. I have a companion who helps, we hunt together sometimes." He offered with a sweet smile._

 _Xanxus made a strange, snuffling noise, and when Belphegor looked at him, the man had turned away to stuff his face into one of the pillows, shoulders shaking alarmingly._

" _You say they hurt people, right? Why don't you kill them?" Belphegor asked curiously. Because he hadn't met anyone else his age who was actually willing to talk about these things, most of them ran away crying before Belphegor could get two words out._

 _Tsuna's face screwed up into something sullen._

" _Yoshi made me and Kyoya promise we wouldn't kill anyone," he mumbled. "He said we could hurt them, and put them in the hospital if they deserved it, but we aren't allowed to kill anyone."_

" _Oooh." Belphegor nodded, immediately interested. "That makes hunting them down harder, doesn't it? They keep getting away before you can pin them down, and if you can't just kill them quickly…"_

 _Tsuna nodded back eagerly, sullen expression immediately replaced with a big grin._

" _Yeah! Kyoya said it makes things more interesting. Challenging, too. Y'know," he frowned suddenly, eying Belphegor carefully, "I think the two of you are the same age. Or he might be one year older than you, I'm not sure. We aren't in the same school back home."_

 _Belphegor hummed at that, and offered him a wide grin._

" _You can introduce me sometime, maybe? We'll find out then."_

 _Tsuna nodded back at him, smiling sweetly again._

 _It was only then that Xanxus actually gave in to the violent laughter that he'd been trying to repress for the past five minutes. Belphegor blinked when he was suddenly whipped up in an unexpected hug, with Tsuna pressed up uncomfortably on his other side._

" _Oh, you're both so precious. You too, Bel. Lussuria is going to_ love _you," he said with a happy sigh._

" _Yuck, Xanxus, let go, you stink of blood and gunpowder!" Tsuna yelped, struggling violently._

" _Don't call me Bel. I'm a Prince! Peasants aren't allowed to shorten my royal name!" Belphegor snapped beside him, not struggling, but only because he was trying to work a knife out of the slim sheaths he had wrapped around either his right calf or his right forearm, since Tsuna was pressed in too close to get anything out on the other side._

 _He stopped, breath hitching in his throat when he felt something warm sweep through him from head to toe._

"Oh." _Xanxus murmured, after a beat. Tsuna squirmed around to stare at Belphegor with wide eyes that seemed strangely blank._

" _You're a Storm," he breathed._

" _Is he?" Xanxus asked, and Tsuna made a face at him._

" _You should be able to tell, Boss."_

" _I doubt it, kid. I don't have the Intuition you do. And, anyway, you're the only one I reflexively harmonised with, it just… happened, over time. With the others. We've worked together for years, and they just so happened to be compatible with my flame." He said seriously, before glancing at Belphegor, looking rueful._

" _And, well. Now this."_

"…' _Storm'?" Belphegor asked suspiciously._

" _Oh. You wouldn't know, right, you said you're from another country. We'll explain it, Bel." Tsuna offered with a smile. Belphegor grimaced in disgust at him._

" _Don't call me that. It's horrible."_

 _He bickered with Tsuna for a little more time, slowly settling into the hold Xanxus had on the two of them, especially when he shuffled back to lean against the wall and pull them up firmly on his either side. Belphegor pointedly tuned out what was starting to feel like a hug, because hugs was troublesome. And cloying. His mother had hugged him all the time, before, Rasiel too. Rasiel's arms had always felt like they were trying to strangle him, while mother had stank of rotting flesh and blood._

 _He carefully ignored the fact that this hug didn't feel anything like those. That wash of warmth was still thrumming in his veins, and Xanxus' large arms felt like a sturdy wall or a shield to hide behind._

 _The knowing look that Tsuna was shooting at him made him roll his eyes, and pester the younger boy for tales of the hunts he'd been on in his home town, offering to trade with tales of_ his _escapades. Xanxus made an interested noise at that, so Tsuna grinned, and began outlining the first of his many meetings with his companion and hunting mate, a boy called Kyoya._

" _You should bring him here, sometime," Xanxus murmured sometime later, when they'd all curled up in Tsuna's bed, half asleep. Well, he and Tsuna were half asleep. Xanxus had somehow managed to remove himself from the sheets to sit on the edge of the bed, watching them with an odd half-smile playing across him lips._

" _He said he wasn't ever going to leave Namimori because it's his_ territory." _Tsuna said, sounding sad._

 _Xanxus laughed._

" _Then I'll just have to come visit you in Namimori sometime, won't I."_

 _Tsuna made a high pitched, excited sound, but by that point, Belphegor was inclined to pay any more attention. He rolled over and buried himself under the closest pillows._

 _Large, ungentle fingers awkwardly patted him on the head, and he heard Xanxus gruffly wish Tsuna a good night before leaving them to sleep._

" _Oi, Bel, you're still awake, aren't you?"_

" _Ushishishi. A Prince needs no sleep," he mumbled hazily, making Tsuna giggle into his pillow._

" _Oyasumi nasai, Bel."_

" _Don't call me that," he mumbled, and offered the other boy a goodnight in his own country's native tongue in return._

 _It was only fair, after all._

X

Tick-tock-tick-tock- _tick-_ tock- _tick-tock-_ _ **tick-**_

Gritting his teeth around the choco-cigarette shoved between his lips, Hayato pushed himself back into the wall and tried not to squirm. His fingers twitched, his head ached, he was hungry and didn't want to eat anything and most of all, the candy aniki had shoved in his mouth tasted great, but damn it, it wasn't what he wanted to _taste._

"…Hayato, if you don't stop moving, I'm going to staple your ass to a chair and leave you for Yoshi to find when he's done."

Hayato immediately jerked upright, distinctly feeling the tips of his ears and the arch of his cheekbones burn.

"Sorry! Aniki!" he yelled reflexively, then cringed in embarrassment right after, especially when he saw aniki slowly massaging his temples, looking irate.

About the only thing that preserved what little dignity he had left was the fact that the baseball idiot and the others were spread out across the mansion with the rest of Xanxus' guardians.

"…I don't see why we have to be _out here."_ He mumbled uncomfortably, after a long moment, hoping his words would change the topic enough for Juudai- _Yoshi-sama's_ brother to forgive him.

The other man had been on edge for days, ever since they'd relocated to the Estate from the Compound. He was clearly very familiar with the Estate, but he was just as clearly ill at ease with the lower level soldiers and associates that were constantly milling about. Hayato knew enough of the stories of the cold war raging between Xanxus and Massimo to understand why Tsuna seemed so suspicious of everyone coming anywhere the doorway that they'd been set to guard – even if the majority had accepted that the Inheritance Ceremony had ended with Xanxus being the next chosen heir, Massimo had enough supporters to pose a threat if they rallied together.

Aniki grunted, crossing his arms and leaned against the wall opposite from where they were standing. Dressed in the Varia's signature leathers and fur, he cut a striking figure that drew the eyes of nearly every one of the men coming near the door way before Hayato's glowering and the silent warning that Aniki's presence radiated convinced them to back away quickly.

Hayato had had years to get used to the fact that his Boss, and friend, was the brother of one of the most terrifying assassins that the Varia had ever brought out. Cloud flames were used to propagate, to encourage growth. He'd heard of cloud flame users making use of their flames to strengthen their bodies, a technique that Hibari tended to exploit with nearly reckless abandon that would have been fatal in anyone else. He also heard of them making use of the flame to physically multiply flame compatible objects. He'd even heard of some stubborn cloud flame users figuring out how to heal making use of their flame – the Arcobaleno Skull had apparently been a veritable prodigy at that technique.

But Aniki was notorious for making use of his flames in a manner that was the complete antithesis of the cloud healing technique – not only did he use his Cloud flames to strengthen his body, he simultaneously used them to hyper-excite the cells in the bodies of his opponents. At the least, Hayato had heard of extended exposure having carcinogenic effects on the people Aniki targeted. At worst…

He'd seen the pictures. Everyone had. The people Aniki had either wanted to or been ordered to make a spectacle of rarely looked human when he was done with them.

The fallout of fighting with the elder Sawada brother was terrifying enough that very few people wanted to attract his negative attention – and the stories were nasty enough that he hadn't been able to control his reaction when he'd first realised just _who_ Yoshi-sama's brother was.

He still found it difficult to reconcile the fact that Aniki and the Varia's Cloud Fist were one and the same. They didn't seem like the same person. Hell, they didn't even _act_ like the same person. Aniki was loving and kind, if distant around people he wasn't interested in on a personal level. He protected Yoshi-sama and in turn everything Yoshi-sama valued with a cold, single-minded intensity that had left both him and Yamamoto more than a little relieved that the older Sawada twin had been on their side. And that their Boss, their friend, had chosen to give up the rings in the end.

But the Cloud Fist…

"Hayato, stop. Whatever the heck is going through your head, it's buzzing enough that I'm feeling tired just watching you." Aniki said, shooting him a pained look.

Hayato winced, and looked down at the ground.

"Please forgive me, ani-OW!" he broke off with a yelp when a closed fist slammed into the top of his head. He clutched at the hurt, shooting a wounded look at the other man.

Tsuna rolled his eyes, reaching out to ruffle Hayato's hair roughly.

"Yoshi's going to be fine, kid. Stop worrying so much."

The words made Hayato look down again, knowing that Aniki was right. Hayato's brain was like a steel trap, if he was anxious about something, it starting throwing up warning signs about nearly everything under the sun that was nearby to distract him from the core of his worries. If the baseball idiot had been nearby, he'd have spent the entire waiting period obsessing over how little Yamamoto seemed to laugh these days, since they'd started to get training from their counterparts in the Varia.

If Kyoko had been nearby, Hayato would have spent the time worrying over the fact that Yoshi-sama still hadn't decided who was actually supposed to be his Sun Guardian, Kyoko or her older brother. Neither seemed to be willing to let the other get involved with the Vongola all on their own, so Yoshi had been left with two Sun Guardians who took it upon themselves to rotate duty whenever they felt it was necessary.

If Hana was nearby, he would worry about how cold and grim she had gotten, ever since she decided that the only way to protect Kyoko, and the rest of her 'passing acquaintances', was to take up law and throw herself wholeheartedly into the deep end of the pool.

If Chrome was nearby, he would spent the time worrying about her symbiotic existence with Mukuro, and how, even when they rotated their control of Chrome's body, or Mukuro's, since no one was quite certain whose body the base was in the first place, they never quite seemed to be a single distinct person. Their edges melted into each other like the different shades of a water colour painting, and the rest of their friends just had to accept that the name they'd been supplied with at the outset of the day was the one they would have to use for the rest of it.

If _Hibari_ was nearby, Hayato's first concern would be that he hadn't gotten into any fights when Hayato, Yoshi-sama, Yamamoto or Aniki hadn't been looking. Not necessarily in that order. His second concern would be for Namimori, and Tetsuya-san, and whether the town was still in once piece after its supreme overlord had left. Though he pitied any poor fool striking out to attack Namimori just because Hibari wasn't around. And his third concern, working at his brain beneath all the others, was that Hibari had been spending increasing time with either Aniki or Yoshi-sama. They'd all noticed him sleeping over at the Sawada Residence more than once, leaving silently the next day. Yoshi-sama had quietly explained that it was something to do with Hibari's family, and that he had to work it out on his own. They'd all been forced to accept that, though neither Aniki nor Yamamoto had been particularly impressed by Yoshi-sama's thinly veiled order to not get involved.

And-

Hands, gently cradling his aching head.

"Fuck, no wonder you get through multiple packs in a single day. Hayato, stop thinking."

"I _can't."_ he replied, feeling exhausted. His eyes weren't quite focusing clearly any more. He wanted to sleep, he wanted a meal. Fuck, he needed to get laid. But more than anything else, he wanted a goddamned cigarette.

"Would a patch help? I should be able to get a hold of some here."

Hayato blinked, slowly, let that thought filter through his head, and sagged forward with a tired laugh. Tsuna automatically supported him without hesitation, guiding Hayato's head down to rest on his shoulder.

The human contact and the gentle fingers carding through his hair made him shiver, because it felt like Aniki was dragging his anxiety and worry out with every pass of his hand.

"…if Yoshi-sama ever finds out that I collapsed right outside the door where the ceremony's taking place, he'll never let me live it down, will he."

Aniki laughed lowly, the sound as soothing as his touch on Hayato's hair and back.

"No, Hayato. I doubt he will."

The words made Hayato huff, and he forcibly shoved the anxiety and his overwrought thoughts down into a box, shoving it to the back of his mind. It wasn't the best or the healthiest of options, but it _did_ ensure that they wouldn't bother Hayato immediately.

When he opened his eyes, the world seemed like a clearer place again.

"Better?" Tsuna murmured.

Hayato nodded, still weary, and lifted his head, backing out of the comforting circle of Aniki's arms. He smiled down at him, awkward, and uncomfortably relieved when all Tsuna did was laugh, and raise a hand to ruffle his hair again.

"Yoshi did find the cutest younger brothers for me to dote on, didn't he." He said drolly. Hayato choked, and jerked backwards. He would've slammed into the wall if Aniki hadn't reached out to steady him, still laughing.

"You need to loosen up, Hayato-chan," he said teasingly. Still feeling uncomfortably hot under the collar, Hayato ducked his head, trying not to meet the other man's eyes.

"You _do_ know that we're both older than you, Tsuna-nii."

The unexpected voice made Hayato jerk again, but this time, he was steadied by the nudge of a broad shoulder bracing him from the back, just about level with his head.

" _Yamamoto-"_ he snarled, but let his voice peter away when Tsuna pointedly tugged at his hair.

The swordsman looked unfairly amused, a lazy smile stretched across his lips.

"Well, if you're that much older than me, why do you still persist in calling me Tsuna-nii, Takeshi- _chan."_ Aniki drawled back in answer. The words made Hayato choke, _yet. Again._ But at least this time he was choking back laughter.

Yamamoto looked vaguely embarrassed for all of a moment before he shrugged, indolent in his slouch against the wall.

"Well, you're Yoshi's big brother. And you're like our senpai. It doesn't feel right." He said absently.

Aniki gave a rude snort, while Hayato rolled his eyes, slamming his head back into the shoulder it was braced against.

" _Ow._ Hayato, do that again and I won't protect you from any more walls."

"As if you ever bothered to respect the senpai-kohai system, you big brute." Hayato said snidely, making Aniki laugh. Yamamoto looked insulted. Or, at least, he did for a few seconds before he let the expression evaporate, looking amused.

"Doesn't mean that I don't respect my elders when they deserve it."

"Doesn't mean that you don't respect _anyone_ when they deserve it." Tsuna corrected, giving a wry smile. Yamamoto beamed at him, while Hayato groaned. The baseball idiot was going to be insufferable for _days_ now.

Not that he could blame him. They'd gotten a lot more used to Aniki over time, but his regard and affection were just as uplifting as the first time he'd complimented them on something without Yoshi-sama doing it first.

"Where's the sword-shark gone?" he snapped, looking up and over his shoulder, because he still wasn't quite ready to turn away from the calming hands curled in his hair and around his shoulders.

Yamamoto shrugged smiling down at him.

"I dunno. I got bored, just waiting around there. Squalo didn't want to play with me, so he ordered me to come find you and Tsuna-nii before I decided to track down Kyoya."

Hayato stiffened slightly at that, and slowly forced himself to relax. The dark laughter the words drew from the man standing in front of him did _not_ help him in his attempt to do so.

"Good thing that you came here, then." Aniki was saying, smiling up at Yamamoto, and the baseball idiot was beaming back at him. They were both way too fucking close, especially with the broad, hard shoulder and the toned line of Yamamoto's arm braced against his back. He could feel long fingers and the edge of hardened knuckles pressing into the small of his back, like four bright points of sensation pressed against his spine. And Aniki's sleek, compact presence was pressed so close to him from the front.

It was very calming in the sense that he had very little to worry about, when his senses were being overloaded by the subconscious strength of their flames. On the other hand, he had way too fucking much to worry about, because _his senses were being overloaded by the subconscious strength of their flames._

"Oi, you ok, Hayato? Looking a little overheated there," Yamamoto murmured, rough, in his ear. It made Hayato's voice catch in his throat, eyes wide. Tsuna was watching him with raised brows, looking more amused by the second.

"…Do I even _want_ to know what the three of you are up to out here?"

 _Fuck._

He dragged himself away from the tangle of Yamamoto and Tsuna's limbs and all but fled to hide behind Kurokawa, who first flinched away from his darting leap for her, then rolled her eyes and let him cling to her shoulders, still shaking from the conflicting signals his brain and his ability to sense flame presence were throwing up at him.

"Hana! Had a good timing keeping an eye on Levi?" Yamamoto asked cheerfully. His voice was completely back to normal, damn him. Why the heck had Hayato even worried about him in the first place? Clearly his need to make mischief hadn't abandoned him yet.

"Yes, but not nearly as much of a good time as whatever you and Sawada were showing poor Hayato here," she shot back snidely.

Hayato made a face, willing the shivers away.

"They weren't showing me a 'good time'. Fucking hell, Kurokawa, try not to make it sound like they were ravishing me outside the ballroom."

Yamamoto fucking _chortled,_ leaning into Aniki's shoulder, while Aniki rolled his eyes, pushing the taller man away.

"Oh, weren't they? It sure looked like you were being ravished from where _I_ was standing." Hana said blankly, looking back at him with a mean little smile. Hayato bared his teeth at her, and for once, wished the cigarette in his lips was real less for the nicotine and more so he could snuff out the edge in the side of her neck. It wasn't like Kyoko or Ryohei wouldn't be willing to heal it for her.

"Well, if anyone was doing any ravishing, it certainly wasn't me," Aniki said mildly.

"Sure, sure. If you say so, Sawada. I never know whether you're being truthful about this shit or not, you like to mess with our heads about as much as Reborn does."

"That's true," Hayato agreed, finally relaxing, now that the feeling of being caged by both Tsuna and Yamamoto slowly wore away. Surprisingly enough, their presence and whatever the heck they'd been trying to do hadn't made him any more anxious. If anything…

Oh.

"Oh you sneaky bastard," he breathed, and Yamamoto offered him a cheery little smile that was damn near sharp enough to get cut on its edges.

"Hey, now, let's not throw around that particular insult out here," Tsuna said pleasantly, though he _did_ reach up to ruffle Yamamoto's hair in appreciation for _that_ sneaky bit of flame manipulation.

Now that Hayato was paying more attention to his senses, and less attention to his, _ahem_ , 'senses', he could feel the cool, sharp clarity of the rain flames that Yamamoto had been feeding into his spine through the points of contact in his shoulder, arm and fingers. His headache had almost completely disappeared, and he could barely remember the things he had been thinking feverishly about earlier.

Kyoko appearing a few seconds later ensured that the rest of his headache was wiped out by the touch of her slender, taped fingers to his temples.

When _Hibari_ turned up, scowling, mere moments after Kyoko had, Aniki backed away, arms akimbo and eyes shuttered.

"Okay. What the hell, kids, why're you all turning up over here? The only one who hasn't wandered over yet is-"

"Sorry, Aniki." Chrome's soft, dual toned voice drifted out from the shadows beside Kyoko, who spun around to welcome her with a hug. Chrome flushed prettily, and hugged her back, but she directed an apologetic smile Tsuna's way.

Aniki only looked even more exasperated than before.

"…I'm not a kid," Hibari muttered after a beat. Hayato coughed, trying to hide the smirk that threatened to break out on his face when Aniki shot him an unimpressed look.

"You're a kid if you're _acting_ like one, Kyoya. I thought you of all people would be willing to appreciate the importance of patrolling."

"There was nothing happening. And all the herbivores here took one look at me before they ran away like they were being chased by wild dogs. Care to explain that, carnivore?" Hibari shot back snidely, making Aniki laugh nervously, rubbing at the back of his head.

The look was completely incongruous to how he usually acted, but they'd all gotten used to how different Tsuna tended to act around Hibari. Yoshi-sama had once tried to explain it away as them being best friends, back when they'd asked him about it, implying that the two cloud flame users were all but sanctioned to act differently around each other.

His reasoning had both Hibari and Aniki chasing him around with tonfa and gloves lit in billowing purple flames for hours on end without rest. Reborn had warned Hayato and Yamamoto to not intervene, since he decided that the chase had been good training. Hana had been too busy laughing her ass off with Ryohei, Mukuro and Chrome, while Kyoko watched the chase with all the glee of a five year old being set lose in Disney World for the first time.

Yoshi had never quite forgiven them for that.

Feeling an intent gaze directed at him, he looked up to meet Tsuna's lambent purple eyes. It was about as riveting as staring into Yoshi's incandescent gaze when he actually had a reason to properly let go.

"Well, if all of you are so distracted, you may as well stick around here. Come along, let's all sit down."

…Hayato wasn't exactly surprised when he found himself pinned against the wall, with Yamamoto on one side and Aniki on the other. He whimpered, and nearly gave in to the urge to crawl off to where Hana was sitting with Kyoko and Chrome, smirking nastily at him.

 _Nearly_ gave in to the urge, that is. The long, callused fingers that wrapped around his left wrist stopped him from moving, because it was like sinking into a hot tub. Even if that actual feel of the rain flame was cool to his senses, the calming effect was like a balm to his stressed nerves.

Aniki laughed on his other side, tucking an arm around Hayato's waist and letting him slide sideways to curl into him, Hayato torso easily supported by Aniki's legs since he was sitting in a lotus posture, legs neatly crossed beneath him.

"Are you _sure_ you guys aren't doing anything morally or sexually dubious there, Sawada?" Hana was calling out from the other side of the corridor. Hayato couldn't bring up the will to care even when he heard Hibari scoff, sounding amused. He could sense his fellow guardian peering around from Tsuna's other side to stare down at him curiously.

"Not sure if this is morally dubious or not, but Tsuna-nii isn't going to be even remotely interested in helping if it were _sexually_ dubious," Yamamoto cracked playfully, rustling closer so Hayato's arm wasn't stretched out uncomfortably.

He was vaguely grateful for the extra care, since he wasn't exactly in any state to shift his arm himself.

"Are you sure you should be tranquilising his anxiety to that extent, Tsuna-kun? He's starting to look drugged," Kyoko was asking, shuffling closer to press her fingers to his cheek.

"It's fine. Squalo's done it for me and for nearly everyone in the Varia often enough that I _know_ it isn't addictive." Aniki said softly. Hayato blinked up at him hazily, and nuzzled the fingers that were petting at his hair. It took another few seconds to realise that it was two different sets of hands.

"He's like a kitten," Hibari was muttering in an undertone to Tsuna, making him laugh quietly. Hana and Chrome had slowly drawn closer too. Hayato protested sleepily when Chrome pressed a soft kiss to his forehead.

"He's been worrying like a maniac since Yoshi agreed to take up your dad's post as _consigliere,_ hasn't he." Hana muttered, reaching out to curl a hand around his other wrist. It made Hayato want to sit up and yell at her, but somehow, he didn't think it needed to be right now.

He wanted to _sleep._ He hadn't gotten a decent night's rest in months, and Yamamoto had firmly forbidden him from seeking out any company at night to shut his brain down. He wouldn't have listened to the baseball idiot, but he'd looked tired enough that Hayato hadn't really had any choice but to give in. The slow stroke of the fingers wrapped around his left wrist made him grunt, irate. Ok, Yamamoto, you win. He'd listen to the tall swordsman masquerading as the male equivalent of a Japanese Nadeshiko more often from now on. At least he wouldn't be ambushed like this again.

"Fuck, Hayato, stop thinking," Yamamoto sighed, and Hayato flinched, slowly shifting till he could hide his face in Aniki's stomach. Tsuna's strong fingers barely left his hair, stroking slowly at the nape of his neck in counterpoint to the way Hibari was delicately petting the top of his head.

"Do I even want to know what the hell's going on out here?" Yoshi-sama asked, some interminable amount of time later, sounding both tired and bemused. Hayato stiffened reflexively, trying to get up, but Tsuna's fingers tightening at the back of his neck ensured that he stayed in place.

"Your right hand's an idiot who's going to worry his way into an early heart attack, if he doesn't find some way to calm down. You should do something about that," he said plainly. Hayato could hear Xanxus' low laughter following on the heels of Yoshi's surprised snicker.

"I don't know, brat, you appear to be handling the situation quite well. Have your proclivities changed? Should I consider propositioning you again?"

"…Xanxus, please don't share any details of when, why or how you propositioned my brother anywhere in my hearing range again. You're like an older brother, or an uncle. I don't need any horrifying mental images of the two of you together."

" _I'm not old enough to be your unc-"_

"Yes you are, Boss, stop fighting against age. And, they're only ever going to be mental images, brother mine. Why the heck are all of you so hellbent on assuming Hayato's being molested – _look at him._ He's half asleep."

"…You do realise that somnophi-"

"Gah, shut the fuck up Boss, I don't need to hear about your kinks in the middle of the day!"

Hayato blinked slowly, feeling the pleasant sense of _family_ , _comfort, laughter_ and _here_ surrounding him on all sides, only increasing now that Yoshi-sama had finally been released from the confines of the ceremony that had been taking place inside the ballroom.

He distantly heard loud voices drawing closer, but they that the same presence in his senses as Xanxus – not a part of his immediate circle, but worthy of trust, since Aniki considered them his own.

Finally, _finally_ , he let the blissful thought of an untormented few hours of rest pull him under, feeling the last of his anxiousness wither away when Yoshi-sama's fingers joined Aniki's in carefully massaging the nape of his neck.

X

" _I don't understand, nii-chan. You've been hurting people ever since you got home this time."_

 _Tsuna directed a bemused look at his brother, seeing the way his eyes were tearing up and his lips were pursed together. It wasn't an expression as devastating as the pout, but it came close._

" _I don't understand, nii-chan. Why do you… why do you have to hurt people?"_

 _Tsuna watched that Yoshi's expression scrunch up even more, obviously gearing up to bleed into tears, and hated himself just a little for finding his baby brother's sobbing face so sweet._

" _I don't 'have to' hurt anyone, Yoshi. But they don't have to hurt anyone either, and they do. Kyoya and I take care of anyone preying on people who can't take care of themselves."_

 _The words just made Yoshi even tearier than before, and Tsuna found himself sighing, helpless. He kicked off his shoes and stepped back onto the wooden floor in his socked feet, enfolding his brother in a tight hug._

" _You've become terribly needy when I've been away," he mumbled into Yoshi's hair. It made his brother cling to him tightly, fingers latching into his shirt._

" _You went away! You said you won't go anywhere, and you went away for months and months!"_

" _It was only for the holidays, Yoshi," he said defensively, and winced when a small fist slammed into his stomach. It didn't hurt even a fraction as much as sparring with his squad members, or sparring with Hibari did, but the pain wasn't exactly physical._

 _He'd felt horribly out of sorts until Xanxus had reeled him in, that first time they'd met at the Estate. He hadn't even realised how cold the world had gotten, and how much he'd wanted to smother himself in Yoshi's light until he either lit up himself or snuffed it out, until Xanxus' blazing presence burnt out every last bit of the agony and bitterness the severing of his bond with Yoshi had left in him._

 _He hadn't really believed his dad or the old man until then. That his staying with Yoshi would only have hurt him._

 _He'd discussed it with Xanxus a few times, since the older man was actually will to be understanding about the fact that he'd had another Sky before Xanxus. He'd asked, and Xanxus had thought it over carefully, before finally saying that that need to snuff out Yoshi's light had been a side effect of the old man and his dad breaking their bond with no warning. He'd sounded so disgusted while saying it too._

 _Tsuna had come away from that discussion with the sinking feeling that he would never really know if he could have hurt Yoshi in the long run, if he'd stayed his brother's guardian._

 _But the fact of the matter was that, where Xanxus' presence had stabilised him after his first bond had been severed, Yoshi was still flapping loose in the wind. It would have been worse, if he'd let the old man seal away Yoshi's flames. He didn't know how, but a voice whispering in his head told him that Yoshi would have been in a horrible condition if he'd let them get away with it._

 _So he hadn't. He'd grabbed the first weapon he could think of and had just let them have it. It had ensured that his brother was at least a little safe, but not enough. Not nearly enough._

 _He could feel his brother's flame, his soul, crying somewhere inside him, still hurting, and their dumb dad had done_ fuckall _to help him. Their mom didn't know any better, obviously. She hadn't quite understood what they'd done to him and Yoshi back then either, though she'd put her foot down and taken his side when he defended Yoshi._

 _That put her in his good graces, at least. Though he doubted he would ever really forgive her. Or any of them. Just because he thought Yoshi's crying face was adorable, it didn't mean he had to like the people who made him cry. If he had his way, he'd beat down every one of the people who'd hurt his brother until there wasn't anything left until a stain on the ground._

" _Brother-can't-breathe-"_

 _He let go of Yoshi with a start, laughing nervously. Yoshi stared up at him, still clearly worried, but Tsuna pointedly rolled his eyes at him._

" _Why don't you run with me and Kyoya for a change?" he offered._

 _He knew Kyoya was another potential cloud flame user. If getting another Sky had stabilised him, maybe another Cloud would calm Yoshi down too?_

 _He barely recognised Yoshi anymore. He's been happy and smiling, and steady on his feet, but somehow in the time that Tsuna had been away, he'd gotten clumsy, falling everywhere and tumbling over his own feet. He'd started crying at the drop of a hat. The first night he'd flown in from Palermo after summer break, he'd heard his mother call his brother 'Dame-Yoshi', and all but exploded. His reaction had scared her and made her remorseful enough that he doubted the horrible name would ever be used again, but Yoshi had looked so grateful… it made him sick._

 _There were supposed to be one and the same. A single heart, beating in two chests, and a single mind, weaving across the space between them, with Yoshi being their kindness, and him being their animosity._

 _He couldn't feel Yoshi beating inside his chest anymore. He didn't know what was worse, that Yoshi's presence was gone, or that he couldn't feel Xanxus' presence in anywhere near the same way._

 _He felt his eyes burn, and reached out to tug his brother into another hug, before he actually managed to answer._

" _Come run with us," he pleaded in a small voice, and felt Yoshi nod into his throat._

X

" _Are you happy, Tsuna-nii?" Yoshi asked him, months later, after they'd both settled back into school, getting used to the fact that things_ wouldn't _be the same anymore._

 _And he'd been right. He'd noticed his brother and Kyoya connect, though he doubted either of them really noticed. Though Yoshi had become terribly fond of Kyoya soon after, spoiling him with his favourite foods nearly every day and convincing_ Tsuna _to indulge the older boy in multiple spars. He generally regretted it soon after, standing and biting at his nails on the side-lines, much to both his and Kyoya's amusement._

" _I guess so," he mused, smiling into the breeze with closed eyes._

 _They were sitting cross-legged on the second level of Kyoya's school roof, since they had decided to go visit him that day, much to the horror of nearly every other student in the school when they realised that yet, Tsuna and Yoshi were being serious when they called Kyoya their friend. Well, at least,_ Yoshi _said that. Tsuna didn't exactly consider them friends. About the closest thing to describing how Kyoya felt was… a pack mate. Or a hunting mate. Something like the relationship between Lussuria and Squalo, he mused. They weren't exactly friends, even though they were fellow guardians, but Tsuna knew they got along like a house on fire when they wanted to._

 _Kyoya hadn't bothered to follow them up, instead stretched out and dozing on the parapet like a large, lazy cat in the sun._

" _The Varia taught you to hurt people even better than before, didn't it," Yoshi murmured, after a beat, making Tsuna stiffen._

 _He hadn't really been willing to tell Yoshi just what kind of organisation his Boss headed, heck,_ Tsuna _barely understood just what being a member of the Varia meant, on some days. But he didn't want to have Yoshi crying again, damn it, he finally managed to break his brother out of that habit._

" _Don't lie to me, Tsuna-nii. I'll be able to tell," Yoshi said seriously, and when he glanced to the side, Tsuna felt his breath catch hard in his throat._

 _His heart thumped dully in his chest, feeling sluggish, and yet, staring into his brother's incandescent, amber eyes for the first time since that horrible debacle with the old man and his dad, he finally felt like he could breathe again._

 _He couldn't feel his brother's presence as strongly as he could before, but he could feel his heart, thumping to the same rhythm as Tsuna's. One heart, two chests. Two flames, one soul._

 _He gave a watery laugh, leaning into the arms threw around his shoulders._

" _You're always going to run away, Tsuna-nii. I don't like it."_

" _Isn't that what clouds are supposed to do? Run?" he shot back, laughing weakly._

 _Yoshi snorted, and pressed their temples together firmly._

" _Just answer the question already, Tsuna-nii. I haven't been able to feel anything in way too long. I finally figured it out just now, so if you cheapen that with lying about what you're doing when you're away, I'll be very sad. Don't make me sad."_

 _Tsuna's brain linked that to Xanxus smirking and quoting from an American superhero comic series once, the words sounding terrifyingly fitting to how Xanxus could be sometimes, and was left a mental image of Yoshi pouting up at him and saying 'You wouldn't like me when I'm sad'. And promptly burst into helpless snickers, trying not to be too loud, because he was having too nice a time for it to be interrupted by Kyoya and his dratted tonfa._

" _Tsuna-nii," Yoshi sighed, but he sounded happy, shuffling a little so he could rest his head on Tsuna's shoulder._

" _It's okay, Yoshi, I'm okay," he said, once he managed to bring himself under control._

" _You're not answering my question, brother," he said mildly, making Tsuna wince._

" _Look, it's a difficult question to answer," he said defensively._

" _Is it? It's a yes or no, Tsuna-nii."_

 _Tsuna breathed in harshly, more than a little exasperated._

" _Okay. Okay._ Yes, _they teach me to hurt people better. They're the independent assassination wing of the Vongola Family, Yoshi, that's Mafia. Dad's the head of CEDEF, which is another independent wing of the Vongola. They're big." He explained in a rush._

 _Yoshi nodded his head slowly, his hair ruffling against the sensitive line of Tsuna's throat and making Tsuna shiver._

" _So you're training to be an assassin?" he asked._

 _Tsuna frowned at that, thinking it over._

" _I'm… actually not sure. Xanxus isn't exactly making them train me in assassination tactics or anything. It's just basic training, getting me in shape. That's why you've noticed, I guess. I think I'm moving faster in my spars with Kyoya, compared to before."_

" _A_ lot _faster," Yoshi agreed, sounding amused. "Kyoya-san can't seem to decide if he should be happy or irate."_

" _Knowing him he'll pick irate and keep coming at me till be speeds up to," Tsuna said snidely, making his brother laugh._

"… _Brother. I don't want you to kill people." Yoshi said softly, after a shared moment of silence. The words made something twist hard in his chest._

" _And if they order me to, at some point?" he returned, voice just as soft. He was_ Xanxus' _cloud now, after all. And whether Yoshi liked it or not, whether_ he _liked it or not, Tsuna knew he would ultimately listen to whatever Xanxus would say._

 _It made him relieved that it was_ Xanxus _who was his Boss, and not someone pathetic like Massimo. Or even Frederico, or Enrico. They were both nice men, but Tsuna wasn't quite sure he was willing to serve under them. They had the same tendency to use people as pawns, like the old man, and Tsuna and Yoshi's dad. Whatever else they said about Xanxus, he took to the field as much or more than his subordinates, and didn't hesitate to get involved in anything on their behalf. He was a good leader._

 _It made Tsuna strangely proud to be his Cloud, sometimes. He had been proud to be Yoshi's, too, because there couldn't be a warmer or kinder person than his brother in the world, but Xanxus was already an adult. He knew what he wanted from life, and wasn't even a little afraid to go out and get it. Or work for it. He was admired and feared by so many people, and it was exhilarating, knowing that an adult like that thought of Tsuna as a friend._

"… _well, they just have to die, right? Just find some way to hurt enough that they die without you actually needing to give the killing blow."_

"… _Yoshi. Not only would something like that be almost ridiculously complicated, you do understand that that's only semantics? I'd be killing them either way, even if I didn't, oh, slip a sword between their ribs or something."_

" _What's semantics mean?" Yoshi asked, confused. Tsuna blinked, suddenly remembering that he'd probably been interacting with a lot more adults than Yoshi had, in the last few months. And that had made the voice of the intuition even sharper inside his head._

"… _oh, never mind, I understand now," Yoshi said after a beat, slowly shaking off the explanation that their intuition had shoved into his head._

" _Can you actually do that? Shove a sword between someone's ribs?"_

" _Well, no… But I know who someone who can. He's Xanxus' right hand man, and the Commander of the Varia," he said grinning._

 _Yoshi made a face at him._

" _I'm not sure if that's cool or disgusting." He grumbled._

" _No, no, it's definitely cool. I've seen him do it too. Squalo's so fast that he can take out the target even before they realise they're dead."_

 _Yoshi slowly blinked at that, before laughing slightly._

" _Okay, yeah. It's still a little disgusting, but it's definitely cool."_

 _They sat in companionable silence for some more time, Tsuna slowly turning his brother words over in his head, before nodding decisively._

" _I'll try, Yoshi. I'll try to find some way to hurt people enough that I don't have to actually strike the last blow. There must be_ some _way my flames can help me do that… but it's the coward's way, y'know. I'll just be telling myself I'm not killing people, but I'll probably end up doing something worse to them."_

" _I don't care. Let me be selfish. I don't want to see my brother and friends killing people unless they definitely have to," he muttered childishly, making Tsuna smile, and ruffle his hair._

" _Okay, Yoshi. Okay."_

 _They continued to sit silently there, enjoying the breeze until Kyoya climbed up the ladder to peer at them intently._

 _Tsuna gave him a small grin._

" _Hamburger steak?"_

 _He nodded, what passed for eagerness in Kyoya lighting up his face._

" _Well,_ I _want ice cream. Let's go buy ice-cream for all of us before going home, Tsuna-nii. You're included, Kyoya, don't try to go back straight home."_

 _Tsuna coughed, trying to hide his laughter at the pained look Kyoya was shooting at his brother._

 _They shared a conspiratory grin, both enjoying the long suffering expression that had been appearing more and more often on Kyoya's face when they ganged up against him, and quickly shuffled down the ladder after him. Ice-cream waited for no one, and Kyoya would let loose on them with his tonfa if they wasted any more time than strictly necessary._

X

" _Y'know, we should just share your name."_

 _Tsuna blinked, and frowned at Yoshi, confused. They'd just found out_ why _their teacher had looked so strange when she read out their full names. And finding out that Yoshi was the only person in the entire Sawada line to not have a name based on a Shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty had_ not _made Tsuna happy. Because, because…. It wasn't fair! It just wasn't!_

" _Stop growling, onii-chan. The librarian will kick us out. See, if we share your name, we'll both be Tsunayoshi, right?"_

 _Tsuna blinked at him, surprised, before slowly smiling._

" _Yeah! That's true. And you can still be Yoshi this way."_

" _And you can be Tsuna. See? We'll just tell everyone that our parents were being boring."_

 _The idea made Tsuna want to cackle, especially the last part. He immediately agreed._

 _They both spent the next few months thoroughly confusing everyone by introducing themselves with the same first name, but requesting that everyone use different nicknames. They had to eventually stop, because the school threatened to tell their parents, but they_ did _demand that no one use their full names again._

 _One heart in two chests, after all. Two flames in one body. One mind, reach across space so they could both share it. They were the same person, multiplied and bettered._

" _Meaning, even if I'm there, and you're here, nothing has to change, ok? Don't cry, Yoshi."_

 _And he didn't. Tsuna gave him a small smile, because they'd shared the name years ago, and now, Yoshi was standing outside the airport with their mother holding on to his shoulders. Both of them had wet eyes, because for once, Iemitsu wasn't the only one going away._

" _I'll come back, ok?"_

 _Yoshi nodded at him, head going up and down like a bobble head. Dad allowed him one last hug before steering him into the airport._

" _You'd better find some way to let me come back, tou-san. I don't want to be a liar."_

 _His dad stiffened at his words, but he kept helped him get the seatbelt on._

" _Tou-san."_

" _Okay, Tsu-kun. Okay. I don't know what your jii-chan's plans are, but I'll tell him to make sure you get to go home soon, okay?"_

 _Tsuna stared at him suspiciously. Being away from Yoshi was making him feel even colder than before, after that thread of light between them had been snapped. The feeling only got worse, when they took off._

 _The voice in his head whispered, softly, and he nodded, closing his eyes. Maybe sleep_ would _be better, when it finally came._

 _Fingers in his hair. His dad was making soft noises, trying not to let him hear, but the voice in his head told him it sounded like crying._

" _Take me back home, dad," he mumbled, half asleep._

" _Okay," His father whispered back, just before he fell asleep._

* * *

 **Trigger Warnings:** Codependency, though not necessarily unhealthy codependency; Adult Fear, because none of the kids seem particularly mentally stable, even if they're well adjusted; Kids freely speaking about killing things - I'm talking 4 and 5 year olds, people; General Eeriness, which is why it's tagged as AU -Dark, even if it's a relatively fluffy slice of life fic; Possible trauma due to the descriptions of Tsuna and Yoshi's Guardian Bond breaking - it's not directly relatable in RL, but just thought I'd tag it.

 **AN2:** Yet another monster oneshot, eating into my paper writing time! I should probably accept that KHR oneshots are all going to be monstrously long, since the others I have going are looking to get just as big. It hasn't been completely edited, I just wanted to post it because it was eating my brain.

Two of the character backstories here, specifically Massimo and Lussuria, are inspired by fanon rather than canon, and have in turn been confirmed by **InsaneScriptist** as having been inspired by **Umei no Mai** 's work, **Black Sky**. So, consider going on by her account and giving that gorgeous story some very well deserved love! If you haven't heard about it till now, you've been living under a metaphoric fandom rock.

Read, haffun, and consider leaving a review on your way out. Even a word or so is good, I'd love to hear what you think!

 **Character Songs**

Halsey – Control (Tsuna)

Christina Aguilera – Hurt (Tsuna and Yoshi)

Shinedown – The Crow and the Butterfly (Tsuna and Yoshi)

Middle Class Rut – Busy Bein' Born (Yoshi)


	2. Don't You Go Walking On Air (Now)

**AN:** Keep in mind that _Does Your Amber Heart Bleed Purple Gold_ is actually complete by itself. Any more chapters added from this point onwards come with their own summaries, because they'll either be missing scenes or follow-ups on the main story. AO3 makes it easy to do stuff like this – both the first and second chapter are individual parts of a series called _Cloud!Tsuna_ there, if you find it more convenient to read in that format.

 **Summary:** Kyoya hits a bad patch with his extended family, Tsuna finds himself entangled in a completely unexpected situation, and Yoshi wishes desperately that he could find some way to erase the events of the last 24 hours from his brain.

(Or the one in which the Hibari Family is introduced, Issues rear their ugly head and Tsuna begins to realise that his relationship with Kyoya isn't nearly as clear-cut as it seemed.)

 **Timeline:** Missing scene from _Does Your Amber Heart Bleed Purple Gold_ , set chronologically before the scene in Gokudera's POV.

 **Rating:** Content is **T/PG-13** , verging on **PG-15** for issues discussed.

* * *

 _ **HEAD TO THE BOTTOM FOR TRIGGER WARNINGS, THEY'RE ACTUALLY IMPORTANT FOR THIS ONE**_

* * *

 **Don't You Go Walking On Air (Now)  
**

* * *

Finding Kyoya laid out in his bed and brooding was an… interesting experience, to say the least.

Not unwelcome, but very, _very_ interesting.

Tsuna quietly dropped his wallet on his desk, following it up with the loose sweatshirt he'd taken to tugging on top everything whenever he was back home. There was something to be said about not needing to look perfectly done up every morning, when he was back in Namimori.

He considered his gloves, with their weighted knuckles, and decided caution probably made more sense that familiarity, in this case.

By the time he actually sat down, Kyoya had shifted enough to stare up at him blearily. The tired look in his eyes had Tsuna's gut clenching for two self-opposing reasons. On one hand, there was something very primally satisfying about having his glazed-eyed and exhausted hunting mate laid out in his bed. On the other, this was _Kyoya._ The fact that he was showing this much of himself so carelessly made Tsuna more than a little suspicious. And uneasy.

"Hey," he murmured. It had Kyoya mumbling, and shoving his face back into Tsuna's pillows.

Tsuna sighed, and carefully smoothed his hand down the prefect's back. This had the effect of Kyoya grunting, reaching up blindly to get a hand around his throat and dragging him down into bed without a word.

When efforts to get himself free ended with teeth being set to his neck, tellingly close to his jugular, he pointedly loosened his control over his killing intent for a split second, letting it spill over in warning. Kyoya made no move to back away, but he _did_ relax a bit more into the give of the sheets below him. Typical.

Giving up the day as a lost cause, Tsuna grumbled to himself, but carefully curled his body around Kyoya nonetheless. The action had Kyoya _finally_ moving his teeth away, replacing them his face and all but shoving himself into the base of Tsuna's throat.

"That can't be comfortable at all," Tsuna said softly, and a touch ruefully. All he got was a low pitched grumble in response.

X

Tsuna didn't come back to himself until many hours later; by the time he blinked his eyes open, it was already dark out, and Yoshi was staring down at him and Kyoya with a rather strange expression on his face.

Yoshi's politely disturbed "Tsuna-nii…" was about as far as he got before Kyoya jerked upright with a snarl.

About the only thing that saved his brother from a slashed open face or throat was Tsuna's instinctive reaction to slam his partner back into the bed, forearm braced against his shoulders and collarbone and lips spread in a snarl of his own.

When he looked back over his shoulder, it was to find that Yoshi hadn't even bother to back up, expression going from disturbed to concerned.

"Yoshi!" Tsuna snapped, exasperated, especially since Kyoya still seemed to be half asleep, damn him.

"Is he okay? What's wrong?" was Yoshi's only response which, Tsuna realised after a beat, he really shouldn't be surprised by. Yoshi had certainly reacted the same way to _him_ when they'd been younger. And Xanxus would only oblige him with a gun pointed in his face if he tried to get his Boss to leave him alone.

"I don't know yet," he muttered back, leaning in to see if that glazed look from earlier had cleared out of Kyoya's eyes yet.

His words were rewarded with a high pitched squeak, making him blink back at his brother, bemused, because what the hell had warranted that reaction?

Yoshi, to his increasing bemusement, had gone a bright, unhealthy red, and had his hands slapped around his mouth, seemingly to stop himself from making any more strange sounds. It was the work of a few drawn out seconds before Tsuna actually managed to figure out why, because honestly, his mind was focused on something completely different in the moment.

"Really, Yoshi?" he demanded, annoyed. Because while he could consciously understand what would make his brother jump to certain, perfectly illogical conclusions, didn't they have more important things to think about?

Like the fact that Kyoya's only reaction to the warning in his voice was to surge up into him, body undulating in a single, smooth motion to try and throw him off. He grunted, swaying with the motion to stay in place and throwing his right leg over the prefect's body so he could straddle it and bodily keep him down. He was in the process of leaning in to get his teeth set against Kyoya's jugular to see if _that_ would keep the ridiculous animal-kingdom- _mania_ in place when he was distracted by Yoshi choking in a horrified way behind him.

Thankfully, Tsuna's obvious intention to go for his hunting mate's jugular had the older man settling down. And he was even starting to frown, just a bit, a clear sign of returning lucidity. The only reason that Tsuna didn't allow himself to sag in relief was the fact that it would only make his brother misread the situation even worse than he already had.

That said, he didn't stop himself from ducking his head down and pressing his forehead along the line of Kyoya's neck, breathing in his clean, familiar scent and praying for some patience before sitting up. He drew his arm back, simply pressing a hand down to Kyoya's chest to make sure he actually stayed in place, before turning around to survey Yoshi with a thoroughly unamused look on his face.

Yoshi, for his part, went from crimson and hyperventilating to sickly pale and still. Tsuna was vaguely impressed – he didn't think he'd seen anyone shift emotional gears nearly as fast before.

"…Carnivore?" Kyoya mumbled, still sounding tired, but distinctly clearer-headed than before.

"Yeah, Kyoya. You okay?" he asked, eyes not leaving his brother's form. Yoshi winced, and shuffled in place embarrassedly. Tsuna rolled his eyes, but he didn't look back down until Kyoya wrapped the fingers of one hand around his wrist.

He blinked, and looked back at him. Because, all said and done, that touch wasn't demanding that he get off. It was silently asking him to stay. Not necessarily in the same position, but…

He frowned, all irritation at Yoshi's misunderstanding disappearing the face of whatever the hell was bothering Kyoya. Because this wasn't regular behaviour from his pack mate. He'd known the older man for years, and he'd never seen Kyoya act in quite this way.

The shift in the atmosphere in the room was apparently obvious enough that Yoshi drew closer again, earlier embarrassment mostly forgotten, though there were still rebellious patches of pink clinging to the tips of his ears.

"Kyoya-san?" His voice was low, though, and didn't carry any trace of his discomfort.

"Fake-herbivore," Kyoya said, and his hand tightened around Tsuna's wrist, once, before he let go and turned to the side. It barely jostled Tsuna, though, because he'd anticipated the movement just before it happened and had shifted automatically.

The action had the added benefit of washing out the last of the misunderstanding-fuelled flush from Yoshi's face, because he sat down at Kyoya's side, leaning in past Tsuna to lay a careful hand on his shoulder. Tsuna had to stop himself from growling, because even if this was his brother, even if this was Yoshi, the person who held his beating heart inside his chest, something about how uncomfortable Kyoya looked had his hackles raising in warning. Not that it did anything to _stop_ Yoshi, of course. His brother shot him an unimpressed look before turning his attention back to Kyoya.

Who didn't say anything, simply closing his eyes without another word.

Yoshi sighed in defeat, but he squeezed Kyoya's shoulder in understanding, shooting a pointed look in Tsuna's direction at the same time, all but demanding that Tsuna find some way to get some answers. Tsuna rolled his eyes, again, and tilted his head in the direction of the door, demanding in turn that Yoshi get the hell out so he could actually _do_ something about getting those answers.

He nearly groaned out loud when that only served to make Yoshi to red all over again. He backed out through the door in a rush before Tsuna could do anything to clear the misapprehension for once and for all.

Free of any judging gazes, he finally sagged in place, his forehead slamming into the pillow beside Kyoya's face with a soft 'thump'.

"You," he grunted, "better have a damn good reason for acting so weird. Because my brother just spent the last five minutes conjuring up images of us having hot, sweaty sex in this bed."

Kyoya huffed out a weak laugh at the obvious disgust in his voice, breath ghosting against Tsuna's throat.

He made a face, and shifted, dragging his other leg over so he could actually hunker down in what little space Kyoya had left between him and the wall.

"What happened?" he asked seriously. Kyoya gazed back at him, face blank, though his eyes continued to carry traces of the exhaustion Tsuna had glimpsed earlier.

The prefect clearly thought it over, considering whether or not to actually say anything, before acquiescing with a low, mirthless chuckle.

"My family," he admitted, giving a lazy smile.

It made the line of Tsuna's spine stiffen, because he vaguely remembered the last time Kyoya's family had been at loggerheads with each other. It hadn't been for more than a few days, but it had had Kyoya going about with a vicious scowl through the entire duration of whatever arguments had been taking place in the Hibari Family home. It had also left Kyoya unnaturally eager to bite any fools who crossed him to death, and the 'to death' part of his catch phrase had nearly been too literal for anyone's comfort. Tsuna hadn't actually been around for anything except the last bit, when he'd tagged along on a patrol with Kyoya soon after he'd flown in from Palermo. But even _he'd_ been alarmed at just how badly Kyoya'd beaten up the kids they'd run into out by a grocery store. Nami-chuu, from the uniform, and why they'd ever thought they _wouldn't_ be caught smoking in public while still wearing their school uniforms, Tsuna couldn't quite say. But underage smoking in uniform generally drew a glancing blow across the back or to the flank of whichever unfortunate soul Kyoya had happened across. A simple warning, if a painful one.

Kyoya had seen fit to beat the kids up within an inch of their lives, backing off only when Tsuna had stepped in, furious because back then, the only thing on Tsuna's mind had been to make sure that Kyoya actually kept the promise they'd made to Yoshi. If it had the added benefit of letting the stupid idiots make it out in mostly one piece, if bruised, fractured and bleeding, well. Good for them.

"And?" he asked cautiously, after a long moment, peering into Kyoya's face to see if he'd be able to glean more answers that way.

Kyoya's eyes narrowed, and he reached out with the arm that wasn't tucked under his head to press a hand to Tsuna's face and firmly shove him away.

Tsuna rolled back with the motion, delighted, because here was something that was far more in character, but he kept the emotion tightly under control, not letting it leak out onto his face.

Kyoya could tell, though. They'd known each other and moved within the circle of each other's personal space for far too many years for the prefect to not know what he was thinking. Especially when he was as amused as he was now. It earned him a hard pinch over the bridge of his nose, making him go cross-eyed and reflexively tear up in pain, but Tsuna still had it in him to offer Kyoya a little grin that had him growling in response.

"Carnivore," he said pointedly, and Tsuna immediately subsided, getting his amusement under control and patiently waiting for the explanation, eyes wide and gaze intent on Kyoya's face.

Kyoya's lip curled just a bit, distinctly unamused, but he gave in without much posturing.

"Crowding," Kyoya delivered the word in a bland voice, and Tsuna frowned, mind working at what exactly he meant by that. He carefully blinked, when he connected the earlier words to this one.

"Your family?" he repeated, just to be sure. Kyoya's head inclined in a slight nod, making Tsuna stiffen again. The Hibari family had congregated? In Namimori?

"Why?" he asked, because just knowing that Kyoya's family was in town wasn't enough to figure out why Kyoya had chosen to come hide out in his bed.

Kyoya's eyes went sharp and narrow, the grey in his eyes glinting like bared steel before he let them slip shut.

"Yoshi," he admitted, after another moment of silence, and Tsuna felt his breath catch in his throat.

Because that… that wasn't all it was, was it. Kyoya whispered his brother's name and damned himself and Tsuna in the same breath.

Understanding what Kyoya had to say at times was like trying to learn a whole new language. He spoke in ridiculous animal kingdom metaphors, lived his life in accordance with the mandates of a rigid hierarchy that only he truly understood working in his head, detested any sense of foul play and savagely beat down anyone going against the tenets of justice he had set in place. He lived for the clarity offered in the line of his tonfa swinging down, breaking bones and leaving bruises in the flesh of anyone foolish enough to threaten the peace of what he considered his territory, and craved the breathlessness and aching satisfaction left in the wake of a good fight with the same desperation Tsuna had recognised in himself at some point, years and years ago.

Tsuna suspected he'd never have been let as close as he had been if he and Kyoya had met in any way other than how they _did_ meet.

"The Vongola, then. That's why they're fighting. That's what the arguments were about, before."

Kyoya made an inarticulate noise, low in his throat. It was as close as he'd get to giving an actual affirmative, because Kyoya had to do things the hard way when it came to things he actually cared about, didn't he.

"Why?" he asked, once he was sure the question wouldn't get his throat ripped out. One eye slipped open, just a bit, to give him a _look_ , before Kyoya settled down again.

Again, Tsuna waited patiently, letting him decide if he actually wanted to answer the question or not, and gave a small smile when Kyoya settled heavier into the bed, looking vexed for a split second before he shut the emotion away.

"My family… is complicated." Kyoya's voice was quietly contemplative, and Tsuna leaned closer, curious in spite of himself.

No one was ever really willing to speak about the Hibaris, in Namimori. Whether that was because people was too damn scared of them, which was the case among what few criminal organisations actually functioned within the borders of Namimori, or because they just didn't _know_ about the Hibaris, aside from Kyoya who'd make himself terribly recognisable, was anyone's guess.

Kyoya's lips pursed, slightly, and he continued.

"Father… says that nearly everyone in the family left to work in other cities and prefectures. As the eldest, he was charged with remaining behind to watch over our territories. Father has… implied… that this duty is to be mine to shoulder when he is no longer in any position to do so."

Tsuna blinked, once, and was filled with a quiet sense of terror before he stifled it with a burst of Will. Kyoya offered him a sharp smile, eyes closed, because he could feel Tsuna's silent reaction to his words as easy as breathing.

Well. At least that explained why his fool of a father and the old man had never needed to leave behind anyone to keep an eye on his family. _Someone_ would have figured things out, they hadn't exactly been quiet about the fact that Tsuna had a home to return to, in the years before he'd 'permanently' shifted to Palermo. While they hadn't made it easy, he knew Iemitsu blathered on about their family at every opportunity he got. And Tsuna had been… more innocent, in his younger years. Had loved his brother too much to not speak about him. He was more cautious than most, but even a single careless word was enough to attract the wrong kind of attention in the mafia.

"…I'll have to pay him my respects, at some point," he muttered, still feeling off balance.

"Please don't. Mother is insufferable enough as it is, I don't need you to come to my home." Kyoya muttered back, and Tsuna had to choke back a laugh, honestly surprised.

"Insufferable? About what?"

The look Kyoya shot him, lifting his head just enough from the pillow that Tsuna was met with the full brunt of his hard gaze, had him pinned in place as surely a saber run through his chest.

"Not you _too,_ " he bit out, dismayed, and was relieved when Kyoya rolled his eyes and let his head drop back down.

"Don't be a fool, carnivore. I'm not particularly interested in bedding you. That doesn't mean that I don't want you around." He returned, voice harsh.

Tsuna read the intent, the sheer irritation at needing to explain himself, before he actually registered the _meaning_ of the words and went utterly still in the bed.

"…Do you even understand what you're saying?" he asked, tone careful. As careful as he could possibly be, damn it, because the words couldn't possibly mean what he was reading from Kyoya's intent.

Kyoya's breath escaped him in a soft, tired rush. And he, rather pointedly, didn't reply.

"…and the rest of the family?" Best change the subject, then. Though he had the sinking feeling that he wouldn't be forgetting it any time soon.

"Police Officers. Detectives. The SDF. Law Keepers of sorts, I think Mother mentioned a judge at some point. Others."

Tsuna offered _that_ the due consideration it deserved, and then, considered just what an entire pack of Hibaris that had chosen to maintain the law would think of one of one among their number getting involved with the Italian Mob, of all things.

Tsuna discreetly hid his wince.

"Are there any more children in this generation? Adults?" he asked, without much hope. The thought of there being even _more_ teenaged Hibaris somewhere in Japan was mildly terrifying, but he suspected that the reaction of the collective family wouldn't have been as violent if they had more children to pay attention to.

Then again, if Kyoya was enough to judge by, he wouldn't be able to understand the inner workings of anyone in the family without years of effort put in. And he didn't think he had the patience to contribute any such time.

He was satisfied with the one Hibari he actually had some familiarity with.

"Some. Children. But I'm the oldest."

Kyoya sounded like he couldn't make up his mind on whether he should be annoyed or resigned. Tsuna snorted, and reached out to poke him in the side. Kyoya made no move to pull away, far too used to Tsuna's habits to actually pay any attention to them anymore.

"Wait. You don't-"

"I don't have any direct siblings, no." That? _That_ was snide. And a rebuke. Obviously Tsuna would have met any possible siblings Kyoya might have had by now.

Tsuna grinned, in spite of himself. There were times when it felt _very_ good that Kyoya was willing to trust so much of himself to him. He grin slowly dimmed, though, especially when Kyoya abruptly straightened up.

"I should return. My father asked me to go on patrol in his place, but Kusakabe-san and the others offered to take up the bulk of the routes. Tetsu and the committee took care of what was left."

 _But I need to return now._

Tsuna stared up at him, taking in the unyielding set of his shoulders and spine. Any exhaustion left over from before had been set aside, to be dealt with when Kyoya had more time to contribute towards indulging it. Tsuna smiled, slowly, and pushed himself up on one elbow, leaning into it just a bit so he could rest his chin on his hand.

"You can come back," he said, deliberate.

Kyoya blinked at him. There was a strange doubling of emotion that Tsuna could sense in him; confusion, because of the open invitation that Tsuna had thrown out, and sharp interest. Tsuna stilled when Kyoya reached out for his face, his thumb running the line of Tsuna's cheekbone, the second knuckle of another finger lightly set to his chin.

He stayed still, even when Kyoya tilted his head, eyes intent. And slowly leaned forward.

Tsuna continued to keep himself still, ready to strike, until Kyoya pressed their foreheads together. And stopped, not moving forward any further, or making any move to touch him any place else.

Tsuna breathed in slowly, letting himself relax at that, eyes slipping shut.

"I did say I wasn't interested in bedding you. Don't get herbivorous on me, carnivore."

Tsuna could hear the harsh amusement lining every one of Kyoya's words, and offered up a mean smile himself, making no move to open his eyes.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Kyoya. If you'd even considered trying something, I'd have torn your tongue right out of your mouth."

It earned him cold, delighted laughter, and the dubious pleasure of being one Hibari Kyoya's support as the older man settled against him, soaking in his presence much like a cat might decide it liked you only for your body heat, before drawing away.

"Talk to Yoshi. Later." Tsuna called after him, wriggling his fingers in a mocking little wave that had Kyoya sighing at him.

He didn't ignore Tsuna's words outright, though. Which meant he _would_ talk to Yoshi, later.

Good.

X

For once, after Kyoya had left and Tsuna had made his way down, he made no move to respond to the curious looks being thrown his way by his brother. Eventually, Yoshi settled with a sulky little pout, distracting himself by playing with Fuuta, Lambo and I-Pin, who were all in Namimori at the same time, for once. Lambo was always there, but Fuuta and I-Pin would disappear every few months, Fuuta to meet 'clients', as he put it, while I-Pin would be taken on training trips by Fon that could span weeks and months.

The expression on his face was adorable enough that Tsuna really couldn't help but enfold him in a suffocating hug, when he least expected it. It set his brother to squealing like a baby, trying to get away, leaving the kids to laugh at them. Yoshi eventually gave in with a grumble, hugging him back and muttering an apology into his shoulder just when he was about to let go. Tsuna just _had_ to give a toothy grin and drag him back for that, much to Yoshi's reluctant amusement.

Their little aside did nothing to stop Yoshi from surveying him with judgementally raised brows, though, when Kyoya turned up at their doorstep, much later in the night, well after their mother and the kids had gone to sleep. Tsuna judiciously ignored him, instead surveying the non-expression on Kyoya's face, and the rigid line of his shoulders. He slowly raised a hand to press it against the side of Kyoya's throat, curling his fingers around the nape of his neck. Kyoya breathed in deeply, settling against him in a swaying motion that gave away just how much more exhausted he'd gotten, in the hours he'd been away.

"That bad, huh."

Kyoya nodded wordlessly, irritation at his supposed weakness warring with the need to sleep. Tsuna tightened his fingers comfortingly, smiling when Kyoya ducked his head into the motion, clearly relishing the way Tsuna's grip was loosening the strain in his neck and back.

He didn't need to look around to sense Yoshi throwing his hands in the air and turning away to walk back up the stairs, yelling down something about 'clearly not being responsible for guarding your virtue, Tsuna-nii'.

He sighed, while _Kyoya_ snorted with carefully suppressed laughter.

" _Please_ talk to him," he grumbled. When Kyoya pulled back, easily disengaging himself from Tsuna's hand, his eyes were glinting with cool amusement.

"What, exactly, do you expect me to talk to him about?"

"Something. Anything. _This."_

"Oh? So there's something about _this_ that warrants talking about?" he asked, bland.

Tsuna stared up at him, pained. Kyoya rolled his eyes.

"You're acting herbivorous again."

Tsuna scrunched up his nose at him, and stepped back so Kyoya could actually get further into the house.

"Talk to him about your family, at least." He said, which Kyoya actually agreed to. It was understandable that Yoshi had to be informed about the situation, seeing as he was one of the reasons that the Hibari family was apparently in the midst of quarrelling with itself.

Tsuna was just Kyoya's pack mate, after all. Hunting mate. Something. It was _Yoshi_ who was Kyoya's Sky. And the reason why Kyoya was willing to suffer the indignity of being associated with the Mafia in any way.

"Kyoya-san, I've gotten out a napkin, a towel and some night clothes for you – they might be a bit snug, but they should fit. We have extra tooth brushes in the cabinet in the bathroom, and I think we have some futons set away too – uh. That is, if you actually need one-"

"Fake-herbivore," Kyoya cut in, much to Tsuna's relief, "I need to talk to you."

Yoshi blinked down at them, clearly bemused, before his eyes started to glow a warm amber-orange in his head. Tsuna smiled, feeling the strength of his baby brother's flame spread through the room, bringing with it a sense of comfort and home.

"We can talk in the kitchen," Yoshi offered. "Have you had something to eat yet?"

Tsuna left them to their discussion, heading up the stairs to ready himself for bed.

He wasn't quite sure about how long they took, but he found that he wasn't really surprised when, at some point, he woke with the tips of Kyoya's fingers pressed lightly to his right shoulder. He glanced up over his shoulder to meet the older man's steady gaze, and read the question there.

He breathed in. Gave the question the thought it was due.

And then breathed out, shifting forward so Kyoya actually had the space to get in.

"Herbivorous," Kyoya murmured, amused, tugging the sheets back over them.

"Just leery of relationships," Tsuna corrected with a roll of his eyes, settled back against Kyoya's chest with a comfortable hum, surprised when he didn't find the weight of arm that wrapped around his waist a repulsive in any way. Even the dig of Kyoya's chin into the juncture of Tsuna's neck and shoulder didn't feel like something he had to forcibly bear. He frowned, considering.

"Not interested," mumbled Kyoya, voice growing faint as sleep drew closer. It made Tsuna smile, and reach back to ruffle his hair.

"I know."

X

"Might want to explain what the hell you're doing with Takeshi-chan, though," he said the next morning, much to Yoshi's horror, as he slapped his hands over Lambo's ears. I-Pin was too involved in learning how to make folded omelettes from his mother, so Tsuna didn't do much more than shoot an apologetic Fuuta's way.

Fuuta looked too amused to object, his eyes fairly gleaming with far too much knowledge for a child to feasibly contain before they settled back into a mask of innocence.

Kyoya blinked at him slowly, tea cup still carefully gripped in his fingers. Tsuna had sprung the question just as he'd taken a sip. It had absolutely done nothing to break the prefect's composure.

Tsuna offered him a faint smile of appreciation. Kyoya tipped his cup in a small salute, drawing it up for another sip before setting it down.

"I'm not in a relationship with him." He said, rather plainly.

Yoshi choked, while Tsuna tilted his head.

"Did he ask you to say that?"

Kyoya narrowed his eyes at him. Tsuna hummed thoughtfully. Well, that was one thing confirmed. He hadn't thought Kyoya had anywhere near the emotional maturity to come out and suggest something like this all on his own. Or understand what he wanted well enough to delineate or explain it. _Takeshi_ , though…

"But you _are_ having sex with him, then."

Yoshi groaned piteously, shoving his face into Lambo's hair, making him squirm with a giggle, demanding to know why Yoshi was covering his ears.

"I want someone to cover _my_ ears." Yoshi mumbled faintly.

"Breakfast might not be the best time, Tsu-kun!" His mother called back, over the sound of the whisked eggs sizzling in their pans.

"Yes, I am," Kyoya agreed easily.

Tsuna nodded, ignored the increasingly pained noises coming from his brother's throat.

"And? What you said yesterday?"

Kyoya frowned, clearly giving the question some thought, before staring back at Tsuna, a little helplessly. Tsuna sighed.

"I'm pretty sure you're asking me for an open relationship, Kyoya. Or a polyamorous one, at the least."

" _Tsuna-nii!"_

"Hush, Yoshi."

"…I suppose," Kyoya muttered, clearly not understanding what Tsuna meant immediately. He found himself smiling fondly, because this, this was familiar. Kyoya's discomfort with conscious emotion was familiar, just as his comfort in bowing to instinct was familiar.

"We might have to talk to Takeshi first, you realise."

"Oh. No, we don't. He doesn't want to be in a relationship." Kyoya responded eagerly to that one, clearly relieved to actually have something to offer in response to a question. Tsuna stared at him.

Yoshi stayed silent. He'd managed to shove his face almost completely into the mini afro on Lambo's head – they'd started trimming it shorter over time after they'd entered Lambo in elementary school, so Lambo didn't have as much space to hide grenades and other violent knick-knacks in it any more.

Tsuna distantly wondered how Yoshi had actually managed to find the space to _fit_ in there, while thinking over what Kyoya had said.

"Did he ask you to say that?" he asked again.

Kyoya nodded, going for his tea cup and downing another sip.

Tsuna frowned.

"Well, okay then. I might have to talk to him myself, but if you're that confident about it, it's fine. You do know that _I'm_ not interested in sex?"

Yoshi _did_ managed to make a garbled noise at that. His mother gave a light laugh in response to something I-Pin had said, setting down her own pan and _saibashi_ and trading it for the young girl's, lowering the level at which she was holding the pan so I-Pin had a clearer view of what she was doing.

"Yes, I know." Kyoya said, voice clear.

Tsuna felt a small smile unfurl across his face, and the last of the tension in his spine smooth out.

"Well. Okay, then."

"Can't we go back to discussing Kyoya-san's family? Tsuna-nii, this is way too much information about your love life – please stop." Yoshi whimpered, entirely too weakly. Both he and Kyoya were in agreement when they turned matched disapproving looks in his direction.

The rest of the morning sped by in much the same manner. If it ended with Kyoya deciding that he had the time to fit in a spar against his 'devolving' Sky, Tsuna certainly had nothing against it.

He didn't think Yoshi was going to forgive him for laughing at the spectacle they made - zipping from one end of the backyard to the other, with Yoshi shrieking and Kyoya snarling at him to stay in one place to take the beating and _toughen up again, damn it_ \- any time soon, though.

* * *

 **TRIGGER WARNING:** More than anything else, I think anyone who's found themselves in a position of unexpected and/or unwanted physical intimacy, if not specifically sexual intimacy, should be cautious while reading this. There is no dub-con, consent issues and personal space are given the respect they deserve here. This is very much Relationship Negotiation, hence the tag. All the same, I'm putting up a warning to keep things safe.

 **AN2:** Yes, this scene ends here. No, that's not the end of the line for whatever the heck Tsuna, Kyoya and Takeshi think they're doing. They're blundering about and still don't know what they're comfortable with, and for all that Tsuna sounds a lot more knowledgeable than Kyoya... it's not guaranteed that he is, since as he mentioned earlier, he's leery of relationships. Specifically romantic or sexual relationships.

That said, he identifies as Asexual Gray-Aromantic.

 **Consider leaving a review on your way out!** I'd love to hear what you think about this, even a word or so will do.


	3. Just How Comfy is that (Old) (Gum) Tree

**Disclaimer:** Just to clarify, yeah, I don't own any gum trees, however old. Or any laughing kookaburras. Or the nursery rhyme featuring either of them. You can find fun little videos with the entire thing on YouTube, and the lyrics to the song are easily available online too. Look it up: **"Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree."**

 **Summary:** Tsuna shows up at the Sawada Household bearing an official letter from Xanxus, requesting Yoshi to become his External Advisor. Havoc ensues. Closely following on the heels of which, Namimori is invaded by the remnants of the Estraneo Family, on the hunt for one Rokudou Mukuro.

...everyone's in for a rough few months, to put it mildly.

 **Timeline:** Missing scene from _Does Your Amber Heart Bleed Purple Gold,_ and set when the cast is in their first year of high school.

 **Rating: T/PG-13**

 **Warnings:** Genderfluidity, Trans Character. But, not exactly? It'll make sense eventually. Also, Asexuality carrying over from the previous chapter. It should be obvious by this point, I think, but LGBTQ themes are present all over this fic, even if they really aren't the focus of the plot.

* * *

 **AN1:** Gasp! No trigger warnings, for once! This chapter is nearly benign! That said, if anyone finds anything in this remotely worthy of being considered a trigger, let me know so I can put up those warnings.

* * *

 **Just How Comfy is that (Old) (Gum) Tree**

* * *

Yoshi wants to say he's surprised when his brother strides in with a letter written on parchment addressed to him, one fine day. Very official and sealed with suspiciously familiar sky flames.

He wants to say he's surprised. But he's really not.

"…And what's this in aid of?" he asked mildly.

 _Mildly_ , after a long moment of silence which he spent carefully perusing the letter. From the top with its uncharacteristically polite start, to the end, signed with a flourish and with the flames smouldering sullenly. A moment which Tsuna spent slowly getting more and more awkward, fidgeting in place before him. Until, apparently, he could no longer bear the look Yoshi was directing at him.

"You're the only one Boss trusts enough to offer the post to," he said.

Which was good to know, but that wasn't quite the point, was it.

Yoshi _stared_ at him.

"Tsuna-nii," he said, "I don't think you understand. _What_ , exactly, is this in aid of?"

Tsuna stared back at him, expression going tight. He didn't say anything, and honestly, he didn't need to. It wasn't like the letter hadn't been obvious enough in its intent.

Which was the point at which Bel blew in, hair and coat whirling around him, a wide grin on his face but Yoshi could feel the rage radiating off him. He sighed, and turned sharply on his heel to walk up the stairs, leaving Tsuna behind to deal with his screeching fellow guardian.

X

Predictably, Hayato and Takeshi were furious on his behalf. Well, Hayato certainly was. Takeshi was too busy laughing to show any other emotion on his face.

Yoshi hadn't told anyone else yet, because he trusted that even if Hayato and Takeshi didn't like the news, at least they wouldn't go and confront Tsuna about it. He hadn't been on speaking terms with his brother since he'd brought the letter in, and it was wearing on him, but he wouldn't give in until Tsuna did. It wasn't anger as much as it was disappointment that was making him stubborn, but no one said he had be mature in his reactions. Certainly not with his brother, who was being just plain dumb if he'd expected Yoshi to just smile and give in to Xanxus' request.

"Yoshi-sama," Hayato whispered, suddenly, clearly having gotten over the feeling of indignation that had erupted on Yoshi's behalf. His tone was troubled enough that it caught Takeshi's attention too, making him sober up quickly.

"You okay, Yoshi?" he asked, the smile still locked on his face, but Yoshi had learnt to look past it within the first year of their friendship. Now, nearly three years since he'd actually gotten acquainted with Yamamoto and Gokudera, he could read the honest emotion behind that smile as easy as breathing.

"I'm fine. I think." He said, giving a tired laugh as he sank into his bed beside the swordsman.

Hayato, who'd been pacing back and forth along the length of his and Tsuna-nii's bedroom, quickly trotted forward to sit down beside him, his face showing all the cautious worry that Takeshi's didn't. Yoshi allowed his hands to be gathered up in his friend's, allowing Hayato to fretfully ease his fingers out of the clenched fists they'd settled in, and leaned into the solid band of comfort that was Takeshi's arm wrapping around his shoulders.

"I'm fine." He repeated, but he didn't say no when his friends stuck around to coddle him for the next few hours.

That they chose to stay for dinner without asking for permission first made little bursts of happiness bloom into being in his chest, even if that emotion was tempered by the fact that Tsuna didn't turn up even after they were done eating and had settled down to sleep.

"He must've stayed at Hibari-san's place," Takeshi said easily, folding his arms under his head, when Hayato voiced Yoshi's thoughts out loud.

Yoshi simply nodded, accepting the information for what it was, even when Hayato reddened a little by his side.

"Do you think Lisa-sensei's going to hit us with a pop quiz tomorrow?" he asked, rather unsubtly changing the topic.

The question predictably distracted Hayato enough to make him forget what Takeshi had said, though from the glance Takeshi shot at him, the swordsman hadn't exactly missed what Yoshi had done.

Yoshi offered him an uncomfortable smile when he was sure Hayato wasn't looking at him. It made Takeshi relax and laughingly respond to the question Hayato shot his way, testing him on a grammatical concept their English teacher had brought up in class earlier in the week.

Yoshi settled back and listened to them squabble with a smile, their arguing voices a balm to the wound that his brother's behaviour had left behind. Not that it meant Yoshi would be the one to apologise first, of course. Because he wouldn't.

Tsuna should have known better than to expect Yoshi to simply agree to be Xanxus' External Advisor. Especially after their father had tried to strong-arm him into being the fucking tenth Don. Tsuna should have known better.

He should have.

X

Bel drags himself in the next morning to grudgingly explain that _he'd_ been the original messenger carrying Xanxus' letter. And that Tsuna-nii had chosen to take him out of the equation midway through, knocking him out and stealing the letter before hightailing it to Japan all on his own. Yoshi ignores the way Hayato's glowering on one side, and the toothy smile Takeshi's offering up on the other, instead taking the mumble for the apology it is and inviting Bel to eat breakfast and stick around for a bit before heading back. If he wanted to.

Bel looks… bemused, by his reaction. For lack of a better description.

"I thought you were angry?" he asked, once he'd tucked into the pancakes and syrup that Yoshi's mom had set out for all of them.

"Not with you," Yoshi said calmly, using his fork and knife to cut his sausages to easily chewable bits.

For some reason, his words had all three men at the table cringing uncomfortably.

"Oh, that's… okay then. Ushishishishi… well, the Prince isn't happy that he couldn't bring Boss' message to you himself, but I could wait until you have a response," Bel offered, his smile wide, but surprisingly careful, even if his tone wasn't.

Yoshi paused in the act of downing a mouthful of egg, eyes focused unerringly on the prongs of his fork.

"You don't need to wait. My answer's 'no'." he replied, voice steady.

Bel blinked slowly at that, but he thankfully didn't try to start a fight over Yoshi's response. Then again, he didn't think anyone would be willing to start a fight with him right then, not with the way Hayato's fingers were tapping on the table. Or with the way Takeshi was handling his cutlery. Even if it was just a blunted table knife, it looked anything but harmless in Takeshi's hands.

The Storm Guardian easily made his excuses once breakfast was done, and retreated without another word. Hayato and Takeshi made no move to speak about it, instead silently clearing up the table and waving Yoshi away so he could go get ready for school.

Tsuna didn't turn up at any point for the rest of the day – or even over the next few days. The only confirmation he had of his brother's continued presence in Namimori was how peaceful Kyoya-san had seemed, ever since his brother had first appeared. That, and the strangely approving look the prefect had shot him one morning, before disappearing to continue with whatever he usually did, in the course of a day.

"Guess he agrees with us," Takeshi had said, looking amused when Yoshi had mentioned it to him and Hayato.

"'Guess'?" Yoshi shot back snidely, making him laugh, delighted.

Hayato had rolled his eyes, and shuffled them off to class, yelling at Hana when she called something out from across the corridor before stepping back into her own classroom.

X

When Kyoko cornered him a full week after Tsuna had first appeared with the letter, Yoshi sagged into his seat, laughing weakly.

"Well?" she asked him pleasantly.

"Do you actually have our schedules written out or something?" Yoshi shot back.

" _I_ don't."

Yoshi leaned away from the teeth on display in that beaming smile, despairingly wondering where the hell Hayato and Takeshi had gotten to.

"Takeshi-kun went to the vending machine, and Hana-chan caught Hayato-kun outside." Kyoko offered, smiling sweetly.

Yoshi whimpered, and ducked his head so he didn't have to look her in the eye. He heard one of his classmates whispering to a friend that Yoshi had all the luck, what with 'Sasagawa-chan' coming to talk to him all on her own during lunch, and he tried not to laugh hysterically. How none of their classmates had ever realised how vicious Kyoko could be, under those sweet, bubbly smiles of hers, he would never be able to understand.

" _Yoshi-kun,"_ she said pointedly, and he bobbed his head quickly, deciding that staying in one piece was a little more important that trying to act defiant.

From the lack of cheerful promises of death in her smile when he got up from his seat, Kyoko clearly approved. He wilted into her side when she hooked their elbows together to tug him out of class.

"You're so melodramatic, Yoshi-kun."

He made a face, laughing nervously when more than one glance was shot their way, especially when it became obvious that she was dragging him towards the roof.

"I'm not being melodramatic, I'm acknowledging the fact that you will hurt me very badly if I don't listen to you," he muttered back, making her laugh brightly.

"Good choice," Hana said, smirking nastily at him from where she was sitting up near the door leading to the roof.

Yoshi stared down at her.

"…dare I ask what you did with Hayato?"

She got to her feet and brushed her skirt off, then reached out to get the roof door open. The clang it made, slamming into the wall on the other side, made Yoshi wince.

"Oh, he'll find his way here eventually. I set him up with a guy in my class. Yamamoto's going to figure it out and drag him up in the next five minutes or so anyway, so you may as well start talking."

"Do you two _have_ to be so violent?" he asked plaintively, especially when Hana turned around to hook _her_ arm around his too.

"Nope, but it's fun!" Hana beamed at him, and it looked unnatural enough that he cringed back. Kyoko giggled, and steered all three of them out through the door.

"So, spill. What the hell's got the three of you monkeys looking like you're hiding secrets again?" Hana said, once they'd arranged themselves against the half walls bordering the chain-link fence. The patient, expectant expressions on both their faces had Yoshi sighing, and leaning into the wall against his back.

"…Tsuna-nii's home."

Hana's brows rose at that, unimpressed.

Kyoko, though, squinted at him, expression going thoughtful.

"Onii-chan said that Hibari-san's been a lot calmer in class recently, and that he didn't tried to split onii-chan's head open when he asked him for a match yesterday. So I had a feeling Tsuna-kun might be back." She said.

Yoshi blinked at that, and gave a nervous laugh.

"He said that, did he…"

Kyoko's expression immediately went from thoughtful to narrow-eyed.

"What did Tsuna-kun do?"

"What do you mean, Kyoko-chan, he didn't do anything, ahahaha…ha…"

They stared him down, Kyoko with a scary looking half-smile, while Hana looked plain disturbed.

Thankfully, that was the point at which Hayato kicked the door down.

"YOSHI-SAMA, ARE YOU OKA- _guh_ -"

All three of them turned to watch as Takeshi patted Hayato roughly on the back, as though he hadn't just dragged him back by the collar and choked him to a stop. After confirming that they were actually on the roof, he turned to push the door back into place before twisting his fingers in Hayato's collar to haul him towards the rest of them.

"…nice to see that you're as terrifying as you usually are,"

Hana's voice was absolutely bland. It made Takeshi laugh shortly, dropping Hayato down so he could curl up between Kyoko and Yoshi, still rubbing at his abused throat, and then shouldering his way past Hana so he could drop down on Yoshi's other side.

"You're being rude, Takeshi-kun," Kyoko scolded, touching her fingers to Hayato's throat, their tips glimmering golden yellow. Hayato immediately breathed in deeply, clearly his throat.

He tellingly didn't yell at Takeshi, though, instead frowning at the two girls sitting opposite them. The forbidding expressions on all their faces, none of them willing to budge, were what made Yoshi give in with a sigh.

"Xanxus requested me to become his Outside Advisor."

His words made Hana jerk back in surprise, while Kyoko's face abruptly lit up with one of the most beautiful smiles he's seen on it in a while.

"He did _what."_

"That's not the important part, Kyoko, ugh, get that look _off your face –_ Yoshi, did _Sawada_ actually bring that request in? Seriously?"

Well. Obviously Hana would connect those two points together immediately. Yoshi gave a small nod, glancing away because he wasn't quite willing to face their reactions to that.

" _Tsuna-kun_ brought the request in?"

Yoshi shuddered slightly, feeling Hayato stiffen on his right. Kyoko was flat out _scary_ when she got angry.

"Kyoko _stop that,"_ Hana sounded absolutely exasperated, while Takeshi burst into loud laughter. Yoshi winced, and elbowed him until it stopped. This conversation was painful enough without Takeshi laughing like that.

"…did he at least explain himself?" Kyoko asked, once she'd calmed down enough to sound like her regular self.

Well, mostly, because her regular self was about as air-headed as Takeshi's, and leading questions like that weren't particularly air-headed. The question made Yoshi curl into himself, though. Because it had had a ready answer, just like the earlier questions, and none of them had questions he was in any way happy about.

"Aniki hasn't been back home since he brought Xanxus' letter to Yoshi-sama," Hayato offered in a low voice.

Thankfully, neither Kyoko nor Hana reacted badly to that. The shock of the situation seemed to have worn off, and they looked about as indignant on his behalf as Hayato and Takeshi had, in the beginning. It made him want to laugh and cry at the same time, because how the hell had he managed to make friends who understood him so well?

"…do you want us to talk to him? We could, y'know."

Hana made the offer almost absent-mindedly, when they were all walking down the stairs, headed back to class since the bell had rung midway through their conversation. Even though none of the others stopped, or turned back to listen to him, Yoshi could tell they were waiting for his response just as patiently as Hana's carefully disinterested face suggested.

Yoshi rubbed at his eyes, feeling overwhelmed, but he gave her a tight smile.

"No, it's fine. He'll talk to me when he's ready."

She nodded agreeably at that, slapping a hand to his back when they parted ways at the bottom of the stairs before casually strolling away with Kyoko.

"I could talk to Hibari-san," Takeshi offered in an undertone, when they were back in class. From the way that Hayato _didn't_ react, Yoshi knew that he hadn't heard what Takeshi had said.

It made Yoshi laugh, part-touched and part-incredulous.

"…Takeshi, don't take this the wrong way, but he will _bite you to death._ And I mean that literally _,_ not metaphorically. _"_

"Well, yeah. But I _could_ try talking to him. I can't promise that he'll actually be willing to ask or tell Tsuna-nii anything, but…"

His friend trailed away at that, and offered him a lazy smile that looked nothing like his usual grins. It made Yoshi want to hide his face in his hands to get away from it.

"It's nice of you to offer, but I think we'll be fine, Takeshi. Tsuna-nii'll come speak to me when he wants to. Okay?"

"Okay." Takeshi agreed peaceably, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder in a strong, steadying grip before heading back to his desk. Which was right behind Yoshi's.

There were times when Yoshi was really happy for his brother and Kyoya-san, because honestly, that had been a long time coming. And then, there were times like these, when he would have been a lot happier not knowing the exact details of their love lives, because at least then Takeshi wouldn't keep _saying things_ just to get a reaction out of him. And Hayato. And _Hana._ Kyoko just giggled whenever he tried to get a rise out of her, and they would spiral away into beautiful laughter that had the rest of them backing off as quickly as they were physically capable of.

But…

He sighed, and pressed his forehead down against his desk. Thinking about Kyoya-san and Takeshi made him think about _Tsuna._ And he was just… so tired of thinking about his brother.

It was starting to make his heart ache.

Hayato wordlessly reached out to press his hand between Yoshi's shoulder blades, not hesitating to offer some form of non-verbal support, for once. It made Yoshi feel ridiculously grateful. To him. To Takeshi. To Kyoko and Hana.

Heck, to Kyoya-san and Ryohei-san too. Because even if Ryohei-san didn't know exactly what was going on, he'd been willing to talk to Kyoko about Kyoya-san. And, honestly, that was as good as a sign that Ryohei was worrying about all of them, since even if he regularly sought Kyoya-san out for spars, actually _talking_ about it meant that he wanted to make sure that things were okay. And with all the frighteningly pleased looks Kyoya-san had been offering him, he clearly approved of the fact that Yoshi wasn't just giving in to his brother.

Kyoya-san was weird like that. He valued Tsuna-nii's company, enough so that he took off on hunts and patrols with him and treated him like an equal, but at the same time, he didn't like it if Yoshi blindly listened to anything Tsuna told him.

It hadn't made much sense, in the beginning. But Yoshi had eventually figured out that it was because, all said and done, _Kyoya-san_ was the one who was his Cloud. And if Yoshi took those crazy evolutionary hierarchies of his into consideration, he didn't want Yoshi bowing down to anyone else, because it would mean that they had some kind of power over _Kyoya-san_ in turn.

Which… was just plain crazy, with a side of ridiculous, because it implied that _he_ had power over Kyoya-san which, no, that wasn't happening any time soon. Nope.

…say what you like, he wasn't delusional.

Kyoya-san might have been willing to accept him as a Sky, and even that was something more unconscious than not, but Yoshi could never place Kyoya-san on a lower hierarchical spot than himself. It boggled the mind to even consider it. But, the fact that he'd been willing to accept Yoshi as a Sky at all meant that he would never let Yoshi to hide behind the 'mask of a herbivore', as the prefect had put it, once. Not again, and definitely not after they'd faced off against Xanxus' men. The few days they'd spent in the company of the Varia had made Kyoya-san particularly leery of Yoshi acting weak in any way, for some reason.

And apparently giving into his brother's whims without a fight qualified as weak.

He felt Hayato's fingers press harder into his back, grounding, and he shuddered slightly, dragging his thoughts back in line. When he sat back up, he wasn't exactly surprised to find his cheeks wet.

He scrubbed at his face with his sleeves, ignoring the glances being shot at him by the rest of the class. Thankfully, they were quick to direct their attention somewhere else, Hayato's glowering face was silently convincing that way. And if that weren't enough of a reason to leave Yoshi alone, the smile Takeshi was directing at the rest of the classroom certainly was.

He gave a choked laugh and buried his face in the nest of his arms on the desk, ignoring the quiet voice of their teacher speaking to Hayato, asking if Yoshi needed to be taken to the infirmary. He had the best damn friends in the world, didn't he.

But he couldn't stop wishing his brother would just… come home. So they could talk things out. He was getting sick of this silence. He'd never had a reason to fight with his brother before, and this distance was killing him.

"Yoshi," Takeshi murmured to him in an undertone from the back, clearly questioning.

Yoshi gave a watery laugh, and straightened in his seat.

"I'm fine, really," he said.

Maybe if he said it enough times, he would actually believe it himself.

X

When a whole month passed by without Tsuna returning home, he had to accept that his brother had returned to Palermo without saying goodbye. It left a sick feeling in his gut, but he forced his way past it.

He just hoped his brother knew what was coming. Because any more of this and Yoshi was going to get past feeling sorry for himself and just be plain pissed off.

X

Predictably, things started going crazy soon after. Not only did another letter appear for him from Xanxus - borne by Lussuria this time, who was disappointed but willing to take back his refusal without any flamboyant attempts at convincing him – but people started disappearing without notice and reappearing severely beaten up.

And it was completely random, too. It was only after Ryohei got attacked that they figured out that someone was targeting the leaders of all the athletic clubs in Nami- _kōkō_. It didn't stop there, either, because any and all delinquents started getting taken to task too. Much to Kyoya-san's increasing displeasure. Kusakabe-san had explained that Kyoya-san felt like someone was trying to take over his territory, which he was _not_ happy about.

When a pretty girl transferred into their class two weeks after the trouble started, Yoshi was more than a little relieved. Because, judging by all the previous ridiculous stuff that had happened to him, the 'mysterious transfer student' would turn out to be responsible for everything, so they could clear things up and their lives would go back to normal.

Of course, that was before she called him out during the lunch break, saying that she needed to speak to him in private. Much to the collective horror of every boy in their class, except for Takeshi and Hayato, who were incensed for very different reasons.

"Oh, isn't that cute. Yoshi's getting his first confession!" Hana cooed, leaning in through the door.

It made the girl – Chrome-chan? – stiffen in her seat. And she curled in on herself defensively when Kyoko leaned in beneath Hana.

"Very cute. But not very wise, Chrome-chan. You see, you don't get to speak to Yoshi-kun directly like that!" she said with a sweet smile, causing more than one of Yoshi's classmates to 'pass out', unable to take the combined impact of her lovely smile and that fact that she apparently wasn't happy with Chrome 'confessing' to him.

Yoshi stared from one face to another, taking in the sight of all his friends nearly looming over the frail looking girl, before groaning piteously.

"Come on, you guys, _stop._ You're scaring her."

…which was the point at which Chrome whipped around to _smile_ at him, eye sliding shut to accommodate the stretch of her curving lips and dimpled cheeks. It was absolutely angelic, arresting when combined with the purple bangs, the cute side-tail the rest of her hair was pulled up in and the skull themed eye-patch. And more frightening than anything he'd ever seen before, bar Kyoya-san smiling. And Tsuna-nii _not_ smiling.

"You're sweet, Vongola," she said, making _all_ his friends choke. Even Kyoko.

And then, before he knew quite what was happening, she'd somehow managed to drag him out of the class and down the stairs. A few confused blinks, and suddenly, they were standing on the school grounds, out to the back where he'd see some third years coming to get a quiet smoke, cutting class and futilely hoping that Kyoya-san wouldn't catch them.

"Um," he said intelligently, making her laugh gently.

He got past her pretty face when he belatedly remembered just what she'd called him, though.

"…I don't know what you've heard, but I'm not affiliated with the Vongola in any way."

He kept his voice firm. Because even if Xanxus kept sending him requests, and his brother was fucking _sulking,_ the big coward, it didn't mean he was affiliated with the Family. He'd refused all of Xanxus' requests, after all, and the old man's orders and demands before that.

Oddly enough, this just made her smile broaden. The angelic expression seemed to melt, but it didn't take away from the loveliness of her face. If anything, it highlighted it. Yoshi felt his cheeks warm, and he looked down, not quite able to meet her eyes.

"I need your help," she said.

"…I'm not sure why you would need _my_ help, specifically. I'm not really strong enough to help people. And like I said, I'm not directly affiliated with the Vongola." He replied uncomfortably.

She seemed to find this particularly amusing, because she burst into soft, husky laughter that didn't seem to suit the fragile set of her shoulders at all.

"It's precisely because you're not affiliated with the Vongola that I need your help."

When he blinked at her, she offered him a soft, pained smile.

"I have no friends to help me, they're all dead. And the people who killed them are trying to track me down."

The words had him stiffening immediately, because they had his intuition rearing up for attention inside his head.

"Who killed them?" he asked, blunt, not wasting time on trying to figure out if she was telling the truth or not. His intuition was already chiming in agreement, verifying the truth of her words in a way evidence and explanations couldn't.

She looked momentarily surprised, before the emotion was buried in yet another smile.

"The Estraneo Famiglia. I was once their ward, but they hurt me. I managed to get away, and stayed hidden for years, but they managed to track me down."

…now that? _That_ rang untrue.

He frowned at her.

"Either explain things honestly or turn to someone else for help, Chrome-san."

She blinked at him, and this time, the surprise continued to cling to the lines of her face.

"…but that _is_ the-"

"It might be the truth, but it certainly isn't all of it. Explain things plainly or leave, Chrome-san."

She went still, nearly preternaturally so, for a full count of a minute before she curled up and burst into more of that husky, chilling laughter. It didn't suit her _at all._

When she looked back up at him, her purple eye had shifted shades to a vivid, jewel bright blue.

"Well, at least now I know you aren't some kind of naïve fool," she said, and the voice sounded wrong. Masculine.

It was still the same voice, he realised after a split second of terror. But somehow, the pitch had shifted an entire register deeper.

"Why did you specifically come to _me_?" he demanded, feeling his hands clench into fists.

She gave him another one of those pained smiles.

"Because when we asked Ranking Fuuta who in the Mafia would be most likely to shelter someone like us, he said that your name was the first on the list."

Yoshi paused, caught flat-footed by the switch to plural from the singular. But that was when his friends finally showed up, the air nearly trembling with the force of their collective rage, so he thankfully didn't actually have to say anything in response.

X

"My name is Chrome Dokuro. But I am also Rokudou Mukuro." She said, much later in the day.

They were all clustered around Yoshi's dining table, yet again. Thankfully, his mom wasn't around. She'd had some work to do in the evening, so she had let all of them in before tugging on her coat and leaving, smile firmly in place.

The first name was apparently perfectly innocuous, but the second had Hayato going still in his seat.

"Rokudou?" he repeated incredulously.

Chrome gave him a pleasant smile.

"Yes, Rokudou. You've heard of me, then? Smoking Bomb?"

"Haha, he doesn't go by that name anymore," Takeshi cut in easily, the teeth in his smile as much a warning as his blade could be.

" _Takeshi,"_ Yoshi said, sighing when his friend subsided with a grimace. When he looked back at Chrome, he was met with an obviously appraising glance.

"…you're not quite what I'd expected," she said.

Yoshi made a pained noise, and slapped a hand over his eyes.

"Just… continue with your story, okay? Chrome-san? Rokudou-san?"

She hummed thoughtfully, and treated him to a small smile that somehow seemed more honest that every lovely expression that had found its way onto her face while they'd been in school, earlier in the day.

"You may call me Mukuro, Sawada-kun. I am Mukuro today."

…now that didn't sound ominous at all.

Yoshi forced himself to take it in stride, no matter how much he wanted to find a quiet corner to shove himself into so he could take a few moments to scream hysterically.

"Okay. Mukuro-san, then. Could you finish your story, Mukuro-san?"

She treated all of them to a beatific smile.

"Of course, Sawada-kun. I was not always both Chrome Dokuro and Rokudou Mukuro. A few years ago, we were two separate people. Chrome Dokuro was the love child of a famous actress who will go unnamed, and a dead man. When she met with a severe accident, her mother and stepfather both abandoned her to the hospital, unwilling to shoulder the burden of caring for her because they both claimed they didn't have the time to devote to a child stuck in a partially vegetative state."

Yoshi was silent. They all were. There was a leaden ball of horror sinking down into his stomach, because he couldn't feel his intuition refuting any of what Chrome-Mukuro was saying.

"Rokudou Mukuro was a ward taken in by the Estraneo Famiglia, adopted when he was still a babe. He grew up in the Estraneo labs with no company except for the few children that survived the experimentation conducted on them. Soon, he was the only child who survived, and he managed to outlast nearly every new ward brought in. The only other children who remained were two boys who were brought in when he was eight, who didn't die as quickly as the others did. He visited Hell six times as a side effect of the experiments conducted by the Estraneo, and returned every time, wanting nothing but to have his revenge. But the sixth time he returned, he found that both his friends had finally died as a result of the experiments being carried out on them."

Yoshi couldn't look away, even when he felt his eyes going wet. Hana looked sick, Kyoko had wrapped an arm around her shoulders and was staring Chrome-Mukuro down with a grim look on her face. Hayato… looked tired. Unsurprised. And Takeshi had traded his smile for a deadened expression that Yoshi had never wanted to see on his face ever again.

But none of them interrupted her – them.

"When he woke up for the sixth time, and found his friends dead, he ultimately decided that surviving to wreak havoc on the Estraneo was no longer feasible. And so, he made use of every horror he had witnessed in the times he had visited Hell, and brought the full power of his illusions down on the Family, tearing every researcher in his sight apart. This continued until he turned catatonic, and until the Vindice swarmed the Estraneo Estate and labs, putting them under lockdown and taking Rokudou Mukuro into custody.

"They imprisoned him in a water prison, hoping to keep him in a comatose state, and therefore hoped to keep his illusory powers under control. But it was too late. His body had already broken down to the point where it had begun to reject his soul-"

"Stop," Yoshi croaked, not able to take it anymore. Because Mukuro was idly recited the stories without a care in the world, as though he didn't have a personal stake in what was being said. He nearly sounded _bored_ , however much an act it might be.

Yoshi could feel his heart aching inside his chest, almost as though it was breaking under the weight of the pain the girl, the boy, the _person_ in front of him had been put through.

"…is there any point to this?" Kyoko asked softly, pressing her lips comfortingly to Hana's temple.

Mukuro gave them a quiet smile.

"Mukuro's soul was set adrift, breaking away from his body," he said, "and he would have remained adrift, cursed to never be whole again had he not been lucky enough to collide into Chrome's soul, slowly bleeding out of a body that was unable to sustain her. Multiple organ failure does have that nasty side effect, you see. But with me there, we were able to anchor ourselves in that body, even if it _was_ in the process of shutting down."

"Multiple organ failure?" Takeshi repeated, voice hoarse.

Mukuro lifted his hands up and away from his flanks, in a showy gesture.

"This body isn't completely whole. It took me a while to get it right, but I'm sustaining us on organs created by Mist illusions."

"And that's… sustainable?" Yoshi asked warily. Disbelievingly.

Mukuro offered him another smile.

"For now, yes. We're both perfectly fine in here."

"And why did you come to me?" he continued, just as warily.

"Because Ranking Fuuta said-"

"Not that, Mukuro-san. Who's chasing you now? You told me that you were being chased by the people who killed your friends. Is that the truth?"

It was definitely the truth, of that much Yoshi was certain. His intuition had confirmed it, after all, even if it had simultaneously confirmed that Mukuro hadn't shared a larger part of that truth.

True to form, it sat up and took notice of the tilted smile that was tugging at Mukuro's lips.

"It _is_ the truth, Sawada-kun. But what's also the truth is that, once I managed to stabilise our body enough to leave the hospital and start living on our own, we both decided that the rest of the Estraneo had to be dealt with. Any researchers left alive, at any rate. And there were many, who went into hiding. I could tell. The Vindice didn't bother to track each and every one of them down, since by Mafia Law, the Family had been dissolved. And _Omérta_ hadn't been broken. So there was no reason to track down individual members of the Family."

Yoshi stared at him, along with the rest of his friends, a dizzying feeling creeping through his limbs and leaving him lightheaded.

"So, you…" Hana prompted slowly, sounding weak.

"Killed every last one of them, yes." He replied, smiling.

"Good. They deserved it." Takeshi bit out. Hayato snorted, unamused, but Yoshi could tell he agreed. Kyoko's smile certainly said that _she_ wholeheartedly agreed with the tale of bloody vengeance that Mukuro had just spun for them.

Hana just looked sick.

"But you couldn't have killed all of them. Or else you wouldn't be running. Unless you expect me to somehow shelter you from the Vindice. Which I would love to do, honestly, but Mukuro-san, you should know better than anyone else that I wouldn't have a chance in hell at protecting you from them. Especially not when I'm not affiliated with a large Family."

Mukuro treated him to a pretty little laugh, more a delicate little giggle than anything else. It didn't suit the voice he'd been speaking in, or the grim humour in his eyes, but it _did_ seem to suit the frame he was inhabiting rather well.

"I didn't kill the remaining members of the Family, Boss, I only killed the researchers. So they don't have any chance of restarting their experiments."

Sad to say it, but Yoshi's brain caught on her term of address before it registered the rest of the statement. That, and the fact that their voice had gone higher pitched and more obviously feminine for that one sentence.

"Chrome-san, _please_ don't call me that," he said plaintively, in the midst of Hayato hyperventilating on one end and Hana choking on the other. Neither Takeshi, nor Kyoko really reacted, but that was because they were too busy keeping an eye on Mukuro to be taken in by humour.

Mukuro offered him a toothy grin, clearly appreciating that Yoshi had recognised the switch in registers for what it was.

"So… you want Yoshi to protect you from the Estraneo? Not the Vindice?" Takeshi cut in, voice hard.

"Yes," Mukuro said simply.

Yoshi frowned, and turned that over in his head. Before offering a single, short nod.

"Done, Mukuro-san," he said.

He proceeded to offer Mukuro space to stay in his house, since he _had_ agreed to protect them.

Hayato immediately protested closely followed by Takeshi, Kyoko _and_ Hana, but he cut them off with a wave of his hand.

"If you're uneasy, you can all stay too," he said.

They immediately looked mollified. Mukuro – no, _Chrome_ immediately burst into more giggles.

She looked positively enchanted, by the time Kyoko and Takeshi had managed to put together a meal of sorts for them to eat, since Mama had already warned them that she might not be back in time for dinner.

"Do you regularly trade off like this?" he asked, later in the night when they were getting ready for bed.

Takeshi was helping Hayato get the futons out so everyone actually had enough place to sleep, while the girls were helping his mom find enough night clothes, towels, napkins and everything else. Yoshi had found himself left behind with Mukuro while everyone took care of everything else.

His mom had been delighted to return home and find that he'd somehow set up a sleepover with five friends while she'd been away.

Mukuro, now Chrome, offered him a small smile that looked unnervingly shy. Especially after how assertive every one of Mukuro's expressions had been.

"It's confusing, but we try to trade off when possible. It isn't easy, though. We're not… really a single person anymore," she said softly.

Yoshi winced.

"I can't even imagine how that must feel," he murmured, voice just as soft as hers.

"We manage. I'm happy, though. This way I'm not alone." She said easily.

Yoshi was discomfited when he realised that his intuition couldn't quite figure out _who_ had said that – Mukuro or Chrome. Or if it had been both of them.

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, lips twitching.

"I'm not alone," she repeated, and Yoshi sighed, nodding in acquiescence.

X

Squalo appeared a few days later, right on the wings of some of Kyoya-san's prefects being attacked by the unknown hunter. They were all starting to suspect that it was the Estraneo, still searching for Chrome and Mukuro. Though Yoshi had absolutely no idea why they were attacking athletic clubs and delinquents, or the _prefects_ now.

With how furious Kyoya-san had been, it wasn't surprising that Squalo was faced with a madhouse when he checked in at Yoshi's home.

"What the fuck, Princess?" he said, bemused, watching Takeshi and Hayato roaring at each other, with Hana and Kyoko trying to break them apart.

Yoshi gave him a pinched look.

"If you have a letter from Xanxus for me again, you'd best head back with my refusal immediately, Squalo-san. I don't have the time right now." He bit out.

Squalo surveyed him with raised eyebrows before giving a low laugh, lips stretching into a harsh smirk.

"I'll take it back, alright. But what's going on here? I thought the only setting that kid came with was laugh-like-a-maniac." He said snidely, nodding at Takeshi.

Yoshi made a face, shaking his head in exasperation.

"That's you and Hayato both, Squalo-san. Takeshi was just irritable enough to actually say something about it, this time."

"…any particular reason the town's in such a mess? I thought your Cloud generally had a good handle on things."

"Ah. That would be because of me, I believe. Kufufufufu."

Yoshi was treated to the unexpected sight of Squalo _jerking_ in shock.

Mukuro had his hair down in a low tail, eyepatch off, and was dressed comfortably in a pair of light trousers and a black turtleneck. And he looked very much like a boy, if a very pretty one. Yoshi had slowly gotten used to his and Chrome's quirks, over the last month, enough that he didn't find it difficult to take Chrome and Mukuro at face value any more, even if they habitually oscillated between insisting that they were one and the same and insisting that they were two separate people and should be treated as such.

Well, that, and the fact that both Mukuro and Chrome would _always_ be able to sneak up on you, no matter how watchful you were.

Squalo scowled down at him, and turned to pin Yoshi with a dark look.

"When, exactly, did you add a Mist Guardian to your roster, Sawada?" he asked, and Yoshi cringed, getting up his hands just in time to shut his ears before his friends whipped around to collectively yell.

"THEY AREN'T HIS MIST GUARDIAN!"

Mukuro burst into eerie, if thoroughly entertained, laughter.

"Oh, Yoshi. Anymore of this and I'm going to think we aren't wanted here," he said.

Yoshi gave him a tired smile, and looked back at Squalo, expression going pinched again. Squalo's face had gone oddly still, before he slowly turned away, shoulders hunched and shaking.

"It's okay, you can laugh out loud. I know I do, sometimes," Yoshi said dryly.

Squalo promptly burst into helpless, heaving laughter, catching himself on the wall and bent nearly in half with hilarity.

Yoshi scowled down at him, switched the scowl to his yelling friends, and finally turned it on Mukuro, who simply smirked at him, holding up his open palms in silent defence of himself.

"I hate you all. So. Damn. Much."

"We love you too, Yo-kun," his mother said cheerfully, puttering past him to offer to hang Squalo's coat in the coat closet.

X

The situation with the Estraneo didn't reach a head for another month, which Yoshi spent wondering how exactly his life had managed to get even more complicated than before. It was becoming more and more obvious that Mukuro and Chrome didn't plan to leave, even after their request for help was taken care of. Yoshi was ridiculously grateful that they were looking at apartments, though.

Spending two months under the same roof as a girl who was sometimes a boy, both of whom seemed to enjoy seeing him squeak, had not been fun. Though he suspected that they wouldn't be leaving his home until after the problem had been completely cleared.

Either way, that wasn't the most important thing in the moment.

He stepped back from the door, folding his arms defensively and staring his brother down.

Tsuna sighed, and stepped inside, tugging the door shut behind him. And, thankfully, toeing off his shoes. At least that meant he planned to stay a while, this time around.

"Boss sent a letter for you," he said.

"The answer's still 'no'. If that's all you're here for, Tsuna-nii, you can get your shoes on and turn right back around." He said tightly.

His brother gave him a pained look. The longer Yoshi stared at his face, the more he noticed just how haggard Tsuna looked, dark shadows under his eyes and skin that looked unhealthily pale. Even his hair looked limp.

Yoshi didn't let that soften him, though. It wasn't like he looked any better.

"Well?" he asked.

"…I'll stay the night." _But I'll leave soon after,_ was what he didn't say. Yoshi could feel it.

The silence made him want to cry, because his brother _wasn't supposed to make him feel this way._

"Oya, oya. Who's this?"

Yoshi jumped in surprise, and almost crashed into the slim form that had stepped up behind him. When he looked back, he had to look _up_ too. Mukuro had been playing with their height recently, since neither he nor Chrome felt comfortable at the height they were at. The decision had been met with sneering comments from both Hayato and Hana, though Takeshi and Kyoko had quickly taken it in their stride.

Tsuna had gone still, any trace of exhaustion tucked away fast enough that Yoshi could no longer see any sign of it. The blank expression on his face made Yoshi want to shiver in discomfort.

"Any particular reason why Rokudou Mukuro's staying at our home?" he asked, voice mild. Yoshi felt Mukuro stiffen behind him, and he gave a nervous laugh.

"Oh, did Squalo-san tell you about him?"

Yoshi curled his fingers into his sleeves to keep them from clenching, because his brother did _not_ look happy. His comment about Squalo only seemed to make it worse, because Tsuna went from looking blank to actively frowning.

"What does Squalo have to do with this?"

"Oh, I was here when he came to visit last month," Mukuro said casually, lips spread wide in an unfriendly smile, and Yoshi had to shoulder him back so he didn't get any closer. Tsuna-nii looked like he was going to go for Mukuro's throat if the distance between them decreased, and Yoshi didn't need to see that, this early in the day. Especially not when they'd just been given Easter holidays. And to think Yoshi had been looking forward to the break.

"Mukuro, _shut up._ Come on, Tsuna-nii, why don't I get you a drink-"

Yoshi got a hand around Tsuna's elbow and quickly tugged him in, getting them past Mukuro before anything more could be said. Tsuna just _had_ to come when it was a Mukuro-day, didn't he. Chrome wouldn't have been nearly as antagonistic. Then again, this might have been one of the few instances she decided to be assertive – he couldn't always tell what would inspire those episodes in her. Kyoko apparently could, and she always looked amused when they happened, but the rest of them couldn't.

"How'd you know who they were if Squalo didn't say anything, nii-san."

Tsuna glanced up from behind the rim of his mug, eyes oddly shuttered. The expression had Yoshi shifting uncomfortably, wishing he could find the right thing to say just to bridge the gap that had sprung up between them. Thankfully, Tsuna could read him as well as he always could, because he sighed and set down his mug. Coffee, which was just plain disgusting. He needed to yell at whoever had gotten his brother into that nasty habit.

"The Vindice sent out notices to all the upper tier Families when old Estraneo researchers and scientists started getting wiped out.

"They're not hunting for him," his brother added, when he noticed how pale Yoshi had gotten. It made Yoshi sink into a chair weakly, more than a little relieved.

"Then why'd they send out the notices?"

"As a warning, that there's a high level Mist user that's currently unaligned and is known for wiping out entire Families who have a penchant for immoral experimentation. They're good at making use of an opportunity, those black cloaks," Tsuna replied, his smile sharp on his face.

"Then they aren't after me?"

…Tsuna didn't even start, damn him. _Yoshi_ did, and he'd been the one facing the entrance to the kitchen.

"No, they aren't. You didn't kill the regular Family members, after all. That was a good call." He said, looking over his shoulder to survey Mukuro with a mild expression. It made the illusionist stiffen up where he was standing, clearly ill at ease, before he visibly forced himself to relax.

"You're Yoshi's brother, then," he said.

Tsuna gave him a small, pleasant smile that didn't look comforting at all.

"That would be me, yes. Pleased to meet you, Rokudou-kun."

"Please, you can call me Mukuro. Everyone else does," Mukuro said easily, walking forward to tug out a chair beside Yoshi. It made him cringe internally, because Tsuna was starting to go blank again.

"And you can call me Chrome," Chrome added in a soft voice.

Tsuna didn't flinch this time either, though he looked gratifyingly surprised.

"Chrome-chan and Mukuro-san, then," he muttered, after a beat.

Chrome-Mukuro smiled back at him, clearly pleased. Yoshi shrugged helplessly at his brother when Tsuna shot a _look_ at him. Strangely enough, that had his brother smiling back at him, expression going soft.

"Ah, Yoshi. What're we going to do with you," he said.

Yoshi flushed pink, uncomfortable with just how fond his brother sounded. And Chrome burst into giggles beside him, for some reason.

He pouted at the both of them, because _obviously_ they'd find common ground in something like this, right.

"I'm not going to say sorry," his brother murmured later, when they were both curled up in bed.

Mukuro hadn't headed up yet, helping their mom with the dishes downstairs. They'd been making use of the empty bed in Yoshi's room for the last month on and off, because Mama had said that it made no sense for them to keep using a futon when there was an empty bed not in use. Chrome generally seemed too embarrassed to even consider sleeping in the same room as him when the others weren't around as a buffer, but Mukuro was all too happy to take Yoshi's mother up on the offer. There were some days when they ran together enough that Chrome didn't mind taking the bed either, but most of the time it was only on distinctly Mukuro days that Yoshi had anyone else sleeping in his room.

"I don't want an apology," Yoshi muttered back, pressing his face into the hollow of his brother's throat. He could feel Tsuna's chest vibrate with the sound of his breath whispering out in a sigh.

"He's my Boss, Yoshi, I can't exactly say no to him."

"And I'm your brother, Tsuna-nii. You could have advised him against asking me to take the post."

"I _did._ " Tsuna bit out, sounded exhausted. "Multiple times, at that."

"And he didn't listen?"

"…It's Xanxus, Yoshi. He only listens to us when he wants to. And he didn't want to, this time. All I could do was intercept Bel and bring you the letter-"

"Because you didn't want me thinking that you'd known and hadn't told me yourself." Yoshi completed, smiling tiredly. He felt his brother's fingers curl in his hair, silently desperate. And apologetic, for all that he wasn't actually apologising out loud.

"The answer's still 'no', nii-san."

Tsuna sagged into him, burying his face in Yoshi's hair. And shook slightly, because this had always been something of a nightmare for him, Yoshi knew. Getting caught between Xanxus and him. He reached up and smoothed a hand down his brother's back, coaxing him into relaxing.

"Stay a few more days," he said.

"I can't. I have to go back- have to tell him-"

"Xanxus-san wouldn't mind, Tsuna-nii." Yoshi cut him off, brushing his hand up so he could curl his fingers around the nape of his brother's neck. Tsuna shuddered slightly, and leant further into him, taking the support for what it was.

"You can't know that." He said dully.

Yoshi shook his head, smiling into Tsuna's neck and soaking in the comfort of his presence the way a man dying of thirst might half-drown himself in a barrel of water.

"I wouldn't mind in his place, Tsuna-nii. He knows that. And he probably knows how hard this is for you, otherwise he would've sent you first, back then."

Tsuna stayed silent, obviously disagreeing. But Yoshi knew that was more stubbornness than anything else.

"Stay," he repeated. "You can shift into Kyoya-san's home if you think staying here isn't right, but _stay._ And spend your days at home, even if you don't sleep here."

Tsuna nodded into his hair, accepting the offer for what it was. Yoshi breathed in deeply, and got his other arm around his brother to make sure he didn't try to disappear partway through the night without notice. It made Tsuna laugh hoarsely, finally shifting enough so he could clutch at Yoshi just as tight.

"What would I do without you," he mumbled, sounding half pained, but mostly amused.

Yoshi half-shrugged, rolling his eyes as he tried to find some comfortable angle in which to curl into his brother without forcing him to let go.

"I don't know. Something decidedly idiotic and reckless, probably."

"As if you wouldn't do the same. I leave you alone for a few months, and you let a serial killer into our home."

"A serial killer on higher moral ground, nii-san." Yoshi shot back primly, making him laugh, relaxing the whole way through at last.

X

Ultimately, it was sheer coincidence that things worked out as well as they did. The Estraneo managed to track Mukuro back to their home, somehow. Possibly because of those dumb notices that the Vindice had been passing around – Tsuna had gotten Squalo to send them a shot of the one that had been sent to the Varia, once he finished yelling at his fellow guardian on the phone. And for all that it was more a picture of Chrome than a picture of Mukuro, it was a distinctive enough to be able to recognise him. Them.

…the only reason Yoshi was adamant on insisting that things had worked out well was because they'd attacked when Tsuna had been home.

Not that Yoshi couldn't defend himself, or course. Reborn had made sure that it was harder for Yoshi to _not_ defend himself than it was to get his fists up and prepare to fight it out and survive. And Chrome-Mukuro was no slouch in that aspect. Between the two of them, they had enough firepower to defend the house and then some.

But Tsuna being at home? Meant that the Estraneo broke their doors down and came face to face with _Tsuna-nii._

"…I'm starting to think it was a blessing in disguise that I chose to come and request you for sanctuary, Boss." Mukuro muttered in an undertone.

It made Yoshi jerk a bit, his gaze directed in the same direction as Mukuro's, but that address still caught him off guard when Mukuro used it. Mukuro _claimed_ that the only time he used the turn of phrase was when he and Chrome were running together too much for him to consider calling Yoshi anything else, but from the secretive little smiles Chrome shot at him, Yoshi suspected the real answer was something quite different.

He winced, folding his arms and watching as Tsuna caught one of the men, in the process of aiming a high kick at Tsuna's jaw, by the ankle and swung him in a wide, vicious arc that slammed him into wall bordering their house.

"Yeah? What'd been plan A, then?" he asked.

"You _dare_ invade my territory, threaten my people for no fault of their own, you _bas_ -" Tsuna was snarling, flames bleeding up his arms in thick clouds, the deceptively fluffy wisps leaking out from between his fingers where he'd grabbed another one of the Estraneo, a woman, by the neck. He lifted her up, eyes glowing a dark purple in his head, and she started to scream, voice changing register midway through before going faint..

Yoshi could _see_ the flesh of her throat swelling up and bulging beneath his brother's fingers.

"…to coerce you into fighting the people after me, either through a show of force or manipulation?" Mukuro's tone was ironic, and politely self-effacing.

Yoshi gave a rude snort, flinching slightly when Tsuna let go and the woman dropped to the ground, blood leaking out through her lips and nose. When he turned to the other three soldiers who'd attacked their house, teeth bared, they dropped their guns and hastily raised their hands in surrender.

"Probably a good idea you didn't try that," Yoshi said, offering Mukuro a tight smile.

The illusionist tilted his head forward in a short nod, the corners of his lips curling wryly.

"-attacking a residential area in fucking _Japan_ , in _broad daylight_ -" Tsuna was saying snidely, arms akimbo.

The Estraneo soldiers looked terrified, but furious at the same time.

"Whoever the fuck that kid is, he's sheltering Rokudou! And Rokudou's our business, whether or not this is your territory, whoever _you_ are-"

"Cloud Fist," choked out the first man. Yoshi was impressed. He didn't think the man would be waking up any time soon, his head had cracked alarmingly hard against the wall earlier after all. There had even been stains of blood left behind.

The Estraneo shut up rather quickly after that, their faces going white.

Tsuna scowled down at them, unimpressed.

"Your Famiglia's been disbanded, and anyway, even the Vindice haven't prosecuted Mukuro past his initial imprisonment. And they haven't sent out bounties or notices for him even after he attacked what pitiful few of your researchers managed to escape from before. He isn't targeting you _picciotti_ either, so simmer down if you don't want to attract the attention of the Vindice out of turn.

"You've got a right to vendetta, I accept that," Tsuna said, voice hard, "but keep my Family out of it."

"Varia," spat the lone woman in the trio, and Tsuna _laughed,_ utterly cold.

"You've clearly been out of the loop too long. _Vongola,_ bitch. Keep away from my Family if you know what's good for you."

"Then it's true? The next in line to administer the Vongola used to be a part of the Varia?" Chrome asked softly. Yoshi shot her a surprised glance, not really expecting her to be interested.

She shrugged at him, looking down so she didn't have to meet his gaze. Mukuro looked back up, though, and suddenly, Yoshi could _tell_ that he was looking at a single person, patiently waiting for a response.

"…Yeah. Xanxus-san's been named the next Don. I guess they haven't declared it outside of the Family yet." Yoshi replied, after a long moment. He turned his attention back to his brother and the Estraneo soon after, though, watching as they collected their people and retreated.

When Tsuna turned back to face them, flames fading out, Mukuro faced him with a serious expression before bowing partially, raising his right hand and touching his fingers to his chest right over his heart.

Tsuna rolled his eyes, waving the gesture aside.

"If they come back here, they won't be picking a fight with either of you, they'll be picking a fight with _me._ If you would be kind enough to direct them either in my direction, or Kyoya's…"

"Sawada-san, after that display, I sincerely doubt they'll be coming back any time soon." Mukuro said plainly.

Tsuna gave a surprised laugh at that, lips slowly spreading in a pleased smile.

"Y'know, you aren't half bad. Come on, let's get back inside."

Yoshi made a face, trying not to grumble under his breath as he followed them in. He was happy that Tsuna didn't quite hate Mukuro's guts anymore, but why the heck were they bonding over the worst things?! He wanted to say Chrome was better, but he had the sinking feeling that she enjoyed keeping him on his toes about as much as Mukuro did.

"Yoshi!" Tsuna called out from further inside.

Yoshi shook his head, shutting the door behind himself before calling back.

"Coming!"

X

Another month gone by. Chrome-Mukuro had _finally_ moved out, once everyone was certain that the remnants of the Estraneo wouldn't be trying for any sneak attacks again. Yoshi had been enjoying the fact that Namimori had gotten peaceful again, especially since his mother was out and none of his friends were running amok in his house, so of _course_ this was going to happen when he least expected it.

Xanxus just looked amused, damn him.

"May I come in?" he asked blandly.

Yoshi winced, and quickly tugged the door the rest of the way open, hastily getting out of the way.

"Please. Come in," he said uncomfortably.

"You look like I just shot your puppy, kid," Xanxus said, snide, and Yoshi was surprised into a laugh.

"Well, did you?" he shot back, reaching out to take the coat that the Varia Boss shrugged off his shoulders.

Xanxus eyed him strangely, before the corner of his lips kicked up in a hard smile.

"No, but I could oblige you if you had any puppies running about underfoot," he offered easily.

Yoshi would have taken that at face value as a weird joke, but his intuition pinged off the words a split second after Xanxus said them, and Yoshi promptly choked.

"-no, I think we're okay, Xanxus-san. Tsuna-nii got rid of most of the Estraneo when he was here last month, and Kyoya-san took care of any stragglers left behind."

"The same Kyoya your brother keeps waxing poetic about? Fuck, I should really meet that kid sometime," he muttered.

Yoshi laughed nervously, automatically directing him to the kitchen, since that seemed to be where all discussions of this kind seemed to take place. Xanxus seemed willing to take it in stride without getting offended, at least. He also acquiesced to Yoshi's offer of coffee, giving a little smirk when Yoshi mentioned that the blend was Reborn's.

"At least I can trust it'll taste good, then. The last time I was out of the country, some fool tried to ply me with American(1) coffee, can you believe that shit?"

Yoshi gave him a pained smile, and wretchedly wondered how he always managed to find himself in these situations.

"…you going to say 'no' again?" Xanxus murmured, later. After he'd sipped at the mug that Yoshi had prepared for him, declaring it 'passable'. Which Yoshi took for the compliment it was, since Reborn tended to say the same all the time.

Yoshi gave a short laugh, not quite able to believe that he was doing this. But he'd promised himself nearly three months ago and counting now, unconscious decision though it might be, that he would at least listen to Xanxus' reasons if the older man ever chose to come and confront Yoshi face to face. He leant forward in his chair, and met Xanxus' intent red gaze unflinchingly.

"Convince me, Xanxus-san. And we'll see."

X

"I don't want my External Advisor to be a part of the Cosa Nostra," was Xanxus' first attempt at giving his reasons. And it made enough of an impact that Yoshi was left reeling in the aftermath.

"What? _Why?_ " he asked faintly, once he got over the shock.

Xanxus sneered at him.

"I think I know enough of this world without having an advisor who'll just tell me more of the same, brat. I need someone who'll actually have something new to offer."

"…but isn't the Outside Advisor of the Vongola traditionally the Head of the CEDEF? Even if you don't want someone who's a part of the lifestyle, they'd get dragged into it either way."

"That's only if I insist on having you installed as the head of CEDEF. I _won't."_

Yoshi blinked slowly, taking that in. And barely managed to control the urge to flail when he realised just what Xanxus' words implied.

"My dad isn't going to be happy about that. Hell, _your_ dad isn't going to be happy about it either." he said weakly, because what Xanxus was suggesting was _breaking tradition._

The older man twitched, slightly, at the pointedness of what he was saying, but he gave a short, mirthless laugh, tilting his head a bit to the side with a wide grin. It made Yoshi's breath catch in his throat, because not only did the expression emphasize Xanxus' natural aesthetic appeal, it left him looking _predatory._ There was a terrifying amount of hunger packed into the line of that smile.

"They'll just have to shut the fuck up and accept it then, won't they. _I'm_ the one who's the next Don."

His words were hard. Absolute. Yoshi felt his folded arms tense, his hands clenching into fists around his elbows before he forced them loose, instead setting his hands on his knees.

"Why me?" he asked, honestly curious. And confused. Because Xanxus coming here on his own wasn't so much a demand as it was a statement.

 _I know you won't consider it unless I come explain things myself,_ his presence said. Every word that had slipped past his lips since Yoshi had let Xanxus into his home had that sense of calculated intent in them. The little jokes, or what passed for jokes when you were Xanxus-san, the lazy stretch of his lips in a smirk, even the way he was leaning back in his seat screamed complete confidence.

Xanxus eyed him oddly, his eyes still gleaming with that strange look of amusement. It made Yoshi flush, and glance away.

"You, because you're one of the few people I know who aren't a part of this lifestyle and whose opinion I think I can trust." He said evenly.

"Why? Because I'm your Cloud Guardian's brother?" he bit out, not sure if he should feel flattered or insulted by that.

Xanxus gave a rude snort, waving his words away.

"Maybe partially, yes. But not just because you're his brother. It's more because you support him in everything he does _without_ letting him walk over you."

Yoshi blinked owlishly at that. Thankfully, Xanxus chose to elaborate without him asking.

"The brat never really admits it, but he's grateful for your support. He knows that you're willing to accept him as he is, but that doesn't mean you're blinding yourself to the realities of what he does. That's the sense I got when I met you, before. After the officiation."

"…Xanxus-san, you're not making any sense. What exactly would you expect of me, if… if I agreed?" Yoshi asked carefully.

Xanxus stared him down, the amusement in his eyes slowly dying out to leave him looking perfectly serious.

"All I expect of you is to intervene if you think my administration is doing something that will have a negative impact in some way, either on the Family or on the people we watch over. From what Tsuna's said, that's what you do even when you're _not_ officially an advisor in any sense, here."

Yoshi stared back at him, feeling a yawning sensation taking a hold of him. It was like the ground was dropping open underneath his feet, because for all that Xanxus had been sending him messengers with requests to become his Outside Advisor, he hadn't really thought that the man would be willing to respect him to this extent.

Which was stupid, he knew. If Xanxus just wanted a figurehead to manipulate, he wouldn't have been chosen _Yoshi_ to be his advisor.

"Is the answer still 'no'?" Xanxus asked, tone low. And uncharacteristically patient.

It would have been easier to answer him if he'd yelled or threatened Yoshi at gunpoint. Yoshi shivered, and stared down at his hands, now clenched on top of his knees.

"I don't know, Xanxus-san. I was angry when Tsuna-nii brought in your letter, the first time. And I was still angry when it was Lussuria. And Squalo. And Tsuna-nii _again._ I just…" he found himself laughing quietly, but it wasn't a happy sound.

He didn't look up, either. He didn't think he could meet Xanxus' regard right now.

Yoshi stiffened when he felt a hand drop heavily onto the top of his head, not letting him look up even when he started. He hadn't even heard Xanxus _move._

"…the shark was right. You're far too much like your brother for comfort, kid."

Yoshi laughed. Again. Because what the hell was he supposed to say in response to that?

He _did_ feel a little calmer by the time Xanxus backed off, though. The older man was surveying him with an exasperated look on his face, but there was understanding there. Hidden in the creases at the corners of his eyes, in way his lips were completely unsmiling.

"This isn't an order," he said, voice gruff. It made Yoshi snicker, because what was being left unsaid was a lot more poignant than his actual words.

"I know, Xanxus-san. I know."

They didn't get the chance to continue their conversation, because that was when Yoshi's mother got back from the market. She looked delighted to have a guest at home, unexpected though he might have been. Xanxus bore her cheerful remarks with nothing to mark his rising irritation except for the twitch of his brows.

Yoshi didn't have the heart to convince his mother to leave, though. Since most of her glee was centred on getting to meet the man her 'Tsu-kun' worked for. Xanxus had looked nastily amused when he'd heard Mama call Tsuna-nii that.

Xanxus left soon after, though not without being forced to answer a call from Squalo and Lussuria, both of whom were yelling loudly on the other end of the line because apparently Xanxus had chosen to disappear from the Estate without really explaining where he'd gone. Of course.

Yoshi had a feeling Tsuna knew where his Boss had disappeared to, though. He offered Xanxus a smile as he saw him out, the older man still snarling irately into his phone, and was rewarded with the man roughly ruffling his hair again before turning to get into the car waiting for him outside.

After he shut and locked the door, heading back to the kitchen to see if his mother needed any help putting away the groceries, Yoshi found his mother for him, leaning against the counter with a soft smile playing across her lips. He stopped by the entrance immediately, because the last time he'd seen that look on his mother's face, his father had been in town, insisting that he take on headship of the Vongola.

"Kaa-chan?" he asked warily.

"Is everything okay with Tsu-kun?" she returned, make him shuffle in place awkwardly.

"He's fine."

"And Mukuro-chan?" she continued, making him squeak. Because his mother's habit of calling Chrome-Mukuro 'Mukuro-chan' or 'Chrome-chan', depending on what gender and identity they'd chosen to go by on that day, always managed to leave him feeling uncomfortable. The only thing worse than his mother using that specific suffix was the fact that Mukuro never bothered to tell her to stop.

"They're… they're fine too," he said, abashed.

"And with you, Yo-kun?"

He paused, and looked away. Because the kindness in her eyes was too much to bear, sometimes.

"I'm fine, Mama." He mumbled.

She sighed softly, not sounding surprised in the least, but she accepted his words with a nod. Yoshi stepped in when she started tugging vegetables out of one of the grocery bags, relieved when she didn't say anything else.

X

"Well?" Tsuna asked him, later in the night. Yoshi made a face, and burrowed into his sheets, pulling the phone away from his ear to glare at it.

"I think… I might say yes." He replied. Grudgingly.

Tsuna made vaguely amused sound that the line managed to carry over anyway. Yoshi stuck his tongue out in response, even though there was no way his brother would be able to see it.

"…you don't have to, y'know. It's not like Boss wouldn't understand." Tsuna said, after a long moment of silence.

Yoshi sighed, and turned over in bed, looking up at the ceiling blindly.

"I know, Tsuna-nii. That's probably the only reason I'm considering it."

"That, and because Boss decided he needed to come request you himself."

That? That was definite laughter. Yoshi scowled.

"Yeah, well. It was the polite thing to do."

"Boss? _Polite?"_

Yoshi had a hard time holding back his reflexive snickers, because Tsuna couldn't have sounded more incredulous if he'd tried.

"He was _very_ polite." He assured, and Tsuna-nii made a wheezing noise, sounding like he was dying. Of either laughter or disbelief.

"Oh. _Oh._ I've _got_ to tell Squalo about this. And Lussuria-nee."

Yoshi laughed, because his brother sounded downright gleeful.

They didn't speak for too much longer, because Yoshi needed to get to sleep. He ran the risk of being met by Kyoya-san's tonfa by the school gates the next morning, otherwise. He curled up into his pillow, somehow feeling a lot lighter than he had before Xanxus-san had come by.

X

 _They run me ragged, your shitty brats._ Xanxus had said, sounding as put upon as he possibly could. Mama had simply laughed, and offered to fix him another drink, which he'd accepted with an irritated sigh.

 _Well, boys will be boys; I hope they're actually helping you at the same time, Xanxus-san,_ his mother had replied, and it was the answering smile on Xanxus' face, slow and more than a little bemused, that had made Yoshi stiffen where he was quietly eavesdropping on them, having excused himself to hide in the bathroom and hyperventilate for a few seconds, when Xanxus and his mother were distracted.

 _They are. I couldn't have asked for more honest support._ He'd said, candid. Certain that Yoshi's mother wouldn't repeat it to anyone else, because air-headed though his mother acted, Yoshi had realised years ago that she wasn't anywhere near as naïve as she seemed. It wasn't surprising that Tsuna's Boss had noticed the same within minutes of meeting her.

 _Honest?_ She'd asked, curious. Xanxus had rolled his eyes, accepted the mug that she handed him with a languid nod of thanks.

 _Honest support is better than loyalty any day. It means they follow me because they think my actions are worthy of being followed. And even if Yoshi doesn't work for me, I doubt he's any more capable of blind loyalty than his brother is._

I need that honesty, was what he didn't say. Yoshi could see it, in the set of his broad shoulders, and in the unbending line of his back. He didn't want loyalty as much as he wanted followers who believed in what he did, because loyalty was inevitable when people had a reason to follow you. It was easier to trust an honest man than a blindly loyal one, bound by tradition.

He turned away from the kitchen, crouching down and pressing the balls of his hands into his eyes, hard.

 _Oh,_ he thought.

He didn't go back in until he heard Xanxus excusing himself to answer a call.

X

"It's a 'yes'."

Xanxus' answering laughter was long, loud and vindicated over the phone. Yoshi smiled at the sound, wondering what was amusing Xanxus more. That Yoshi had finally agreed, after being all but courted for close to half a year, or the thought of what his dad's reaction would be when Xanxus finally got around to telling him that Yoshi was to be the Decimo's _consigliere._

"I'm sending your brother back for you," Xanxus said, and Yoshi could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Okay," Yoshi replied.

Yoshi knew that things wouldn't be officiated until after he graduated from high school, but this was as much as confirmation as people in the know would require. He'd somehow found himself in the position of advising a Mafia Don, after he'd turned down the post of Don himself. It was either irony or some kind of reverse serendipity at work.

And if Xanxus didn't keep to his promises of allowing Yoshi stay separate, well. They would see, wouldn't they.

* * *

1: Guys, no offence to drinkers of regular or 'American' coffee. I certainly drink enough of it myself. This is purely a side-effect of the research I've put into Italy and coffee. Any Italian readers out there, or readers of Italian descent? Do you have family and/or friends who cringe at the thought of drinking 'American' coffee?

* * *

 **AN2:** Well, this scene really got out of hand, didn't it. Haha.

At least it answers the question of how the heck Yoshi went from wanting nothing to do with the Vongola, his brother aside, to choosing to become Xanxus' _consigliere_ in the closing scenes of _Does Your Amber Heart Bleed Purple Gold_.

I've tagged Chrome-Mukuro as both Genderfluid and Trans, in the tags on AO3 for this piece. Which would be the only reason I noted it earlier in the chapter as a warning. Though neither term is completely appropriate for their situation. They're two people living in one body, and sometimes, they're a single person. I might write another piece with further details on just what's going on on that front, at some point. Not immediately, though.

 **Hope you enjoyed this, and consider leaving a review on your way out**. I'd love to hear what you think! Even a word or so will do, as always.


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